I 




PEESIDENT LINCOLN 




BOOTH BEING BURNT OUT Of THE BARN. 



ILLUSTRATED LIFE, SERVICES, MARTYRDOxM 

AND FUNERAL OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



With a full account of the Imposing Ceremonies at the National Capital, on 
February 12th, 1866, and the 

HON. GEORGE BANCROFT'S ORATION, 

Delivered on the occasion hefore both Houses of Congress, by their request, 
Bresence of President Andrew Johnson, the Cabinet, Gen, Grant, 
Chief Justice Chase, and the Diplomatic Corps, 



With a Portrait of Al)rafiaiii Lincoln, and otlier 
Ensravinss of tlic Scene of tlie Assassination e 




With a fall history of his Life ; Assassination ; Death, and Vuneral. His career as 
a Lawyer and Politician ; his services in Congress ; with his Speeches, Proclama- 
tions, Acts, and services as President of the United States, and Commander-in- 
Chief of the Army and Navy, from the time of his first Inauguration as President 
of the United States, until the night of his Assassination. Only new and complete 
edition, with a full history of the assassination of the President, by distinguished 
eye witnesses of it. Mr. Lincoln's Deathbed scenes, and a full account of the 
Fiiaeral Ceveniouies, from the time his remains were placed in the East Koom at 
the White House, until they woik finally consigned to their last resting place, in 
Oak Ridge Cemetery, at f^prinufi-ld. Illinois; with Addresses an<l Situkuis by the 
Hon. George Bancroft, Rev. Hfnrv Ward Rpocher, General Walbridge, Honorable 
Schuyler Colfax, Bishop Simi>-..n, r\r ; wiili a full account of the esca.pe, imrsnit, 
appreliension, and death of the :i-a"iii. l;'..>tli ; as well as the Oration delivered 
by tlie Hun. George Bancroft. r,ii I' ■! i aai y 1 Litli, 1S66, before both Houses of Con- 
gress, in presence of President A iidn-w Johnson, the Cabinet, Gen. Grant, Chief 
Justice Chase, and the Foreign Ministers. 




T. B. PETP:ilSCF?f^?N][JBROTHERS; 

306 CHESTNUT STREET. 



/ 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

T. B. P]:;TERS0N & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's OflSce of the District Court of the United States, in and fur the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






CONTENTS. 



Birth of President Abraham Lincoln, and his ancestors.... 21 

His grandfather killed by the Indians and scalped — De- 
scription of his parents 22 

" Abe" goes to school — The Lincoln Family remove to In- 
diana 23 

Death of Mrs. Lincoln — " Abe" learns to write — His father 
marries again — " Abe" finishes his education 26 

He becomes a hired hand on a flatboat, and goes to New 
Orleans 27 

The family remove to Illinois — " Abe" seeks his fortune 
among strangers 28 

He takes another trip to New Orleans — Becomes a miller 
and salesman — His services in the Black Hawk war.... 29 

Is nominated for the Legislature and is defeated — Becomes 
a merchant and surveyor — Is elected to the Legislature 
— Studies law 30 

A thrilling incident in his legal career 31 

A protest against slavery — Is a candidate for Presidential 
Elector — Mr. Lincoln is elected to Congress — His votes 
and speeches during his Congressional term 32 

Becomes a delegate to the National Convention of 1848 — 
He is nominated for United States Senator, but with- 
draws 40 

He is again nominated for the Senate — His speeches in the 
celebrated Lincoln-Douglas campaign— His tribute to the 
Declaration of Independence 41 

Pen-Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 43 

Mr. Lincoln is defeated by Mr. Douglas — Is then named 
for the Presidency — Evidence of his skill as a Rail- 
splitter 47 

His great speech at the Cooper Institute, New York 48 

Is nominated for President of the United States by the 

Bepublican Convention 64 

(15) 



16 CONTENTS. 

He 13 notified of his nomination by a Committee appointed 
by the Convention 65 

Speech of the President of the Convention — Reply of Mr. 
Lincoln — Correspondence between the Convention and 
Mr. Lincoln 66 

Is elected President of the United States 67 

He leaves Springfield for Washington — Ovations on the 
route 68 

His arrival at Toledo and Indianapolis — His speeches at 
each place 69 

He arrives at Cincinnati, and addresses the citizens from 
the Burnet House 70 

His arrival at Columbus, with his speech 71 

His arrival at Steubenville, and his address to the people — 
Arrives in Pittsburg, and makes a speech to the citi- 
zens 72 

Proceeds to Cleveland, and from thence to Buffalo, with his 
speeches at each place 74 

Goes next to Albany — His arrival there, and speeches a* 
the Capitol and to the members of the Legislature 76 

Proceeds to New York, and on his way makes a speech at 
Poughkeepsie — Arrival in New York, with his speech, 
on being welcomed by the Mayor of the city to that 
place 78 

Goes next to Trenton — His speeches to the Senate and 
to the Chambers of the Assembly of the State of New 
Jersey 79 

Proceeds to Philadelphia — Is welcomed by the Mayor of 
that city — Mr. Lincoln's speech in reply 81 

He visits " Old Independence Hall" — His speech there 82 

lie raises the National Flag of the country to the top of the 
flag-staff on " Old Independence Hall," on Washington's 
Birth-day 83 

He leaves for Harrisburg — His arrival there — Is welcomed 
by both Houses of the Legislature, and his speech on 
that occasion 84 

A plot is made to assassinate him — How it was thwarted.... 85 

Returns to Philadelphia in a special train, and proceeds to 
Washington in disguise — His arrival there — Is welcomed 
*o Washington by the authorities — His speech in reply 86 

Addresses the Republican Association 87 

He is inaugurated President of the United States — Inaugu- 
ral Address of Abraham Lincoln 88 

President Lincoln's interview with the Virginia Commis- 
sioners, with his Address to them on that occasion 95 



CONTENTS. 17 

PAOB 

The first Proclamation for troops — Congress summoned to 

assemble on the Fourth of July 97 

A blockade of Southern ports ordered 98 

The President's communication with the Maryland au- 
thorities 1 99 

Blockaoing of Virginia and North Carolina lOl 

A call for additional troops 102 

Has an interview with the Maryland Legislature 103 

A special order for Florida — President Lincoln's first Mes- 
sage to Congress 104 

A day of Fasting and Prayer appointed 117 

Commercial intercourse with the Rebellious States pro- 
hibited 118 

He modifies an order of General Fremont's — His second 

Message to Congress 119 

The President's Message recommending Gradual Emancipa- 
tion 120 

He assumes active command of the Army and Navy of the 

United States 122 

He orders Thanksgiving for signal victories— Slavery abol- 
ished in the District of Columbia 123 

Rt-opening of some of the Southern Ports — Repudiates an 

emancipation order of Major-General Hunter 124 

The President's conference with the Loyal Governors — His 
interview with the Border Congressmen — He reads to 

them a powerful Appeal 125 

Instructions to Military and Naval Commanders 128 

A draft fur Three Hundred Thousand Men ordered — The 

President speaks at a war meeting in Washington 129 

The Emancipation Proclamation of September 22d, 1862... 131 
The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st, 1863.... 133 

Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus 135 

He issues an Order for the observance of the Sabbath 136 

His Annual Message of December, 1862 — Important recom- 
mendations to Congress 137 

Receives a Complimentary Address from Manchester, Eng- 
land 138 

Ihe President visits the Army of the Potomac — Reviews 

the troops etc 140 

The Enrolment Act and the rights of Aliens 142 

A National Thanksgiving ordered 143 

Letter from the President on the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion to the Union men of Illinois 145 



18 CONTENTS. 

PAdl 

Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in certain cases 143 

A Proclamation for a National Thanksgiving 149 

Three Hundred Thousand more men called for 151 

The President's Dedicatory Address at the Consecration of 

the National Cemetery at Gettysburg 152 

He issues another Thanksgiving Proclamation — His Annual 
Message of December, 1863 — Full pardon offered to the 

Rebels , 153 

Issues a Proclamation for Seven Hundred Thousand more 

men 156 

Explanatory Proclamation of one issued December eighth, 

1863 157 

An Impartial Review of the President's Policy 158 

Address of President Lincoln at a fair held at the Patent 

Office at Washington, on March 18th, 1864 174 

His Address to the Committee of the Workingman's Demo- 
cratic Republican Association of New York, on March 

21st, 1864 175 

He is the choice of the Legislatures of Fifteen States, and 

of the American People for another term 177 

Resolutions of the Union League of Philadelphia 179 

General Grant made a Lieutenant-General 181 

A vigorous Prosecution of the War 181 

Mr. Lincoln Re-nominated for the Presidency 182 

President Lincoln visits Philadelphia 185 

Washington Threatened 186 

"To whom it may Concern" 186 

The Fall of Atlanta. Mr. Lincoln is Re-elected 187 

Mr. Lincoln makes a Speech. His last Annual Message.. 188 

More Troops wanted 189 

Mr. Lincoln has an Interview with Rebel Commissioners. 189 
Mr. Lincoln is inaugurated President of the United 

States for a second term 101 

Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Address of March 4th, 1865 192 

President Lincoln goes to " the Front" 193 

Gen. Lee Surrenders. President returns to Washington. 11)4 

Mr. Lincoln's Last Speech l'.)5 

Assassination of President Lincoln 198 

Scene of the Assassination of President Lincoln 201 

The Dying Scenes of Abraham Lincoln 202 

Tlie Autopsy on the Dody 204 



CONTENTS. 19 

PAOB 

The Murderer of President Lincoln, and what became of 
him 205 

Statements and Affidavits in Eelation to the Murder- 
Statement of Assistant Secretary Field 207 

M ajor Rathbone's Statement 210 

Affidavit of Miss Harris, daughter of Senator Harris 212 

Surgeon General Barnes' Statement 213 

Full description of Ford's Theatre, in Washington 214 

The Remains of Abraham Lincoln lay in State in the East 

Room, at the White House 216 

Funeral Services at the White House 217 

The whole Audience join in the Prayers, and are affected 

to tears 219 

Bishop Simpson's Prayer at the Funeral Ceremonies at 

the White House 220 

The Funeral Oration by Dr. Gurley, at the White House. 221 

The Funeral Procession at Washington 228 

Arrival of the Remains at the Capitol 229 

The Departure of the Funeral Cortege from Washington, 

on their way to Springfield, Illinois 330 

Route of the Funeral Cortege to Springfield 231 

Distinguished Mourners, and Delegates from Illinois 232 

Scenes along the route, and the arrival of the Funeral 

Cortege at Baltimore 233 

Their arrival at Harrisburg — Arrival at Philadelphia 234 

The Body lay in State in Independence Hall 235 

Is visited by the Mayor, Councils, and Judges of the 

Courts — The Guard of Honor in Independence Hall.., 237 
The Body is seen by over One Hundred and Twenty 

Thousand persons in Philadelphia 288 

The Funeral Cortege leaves Philadelphia — Its Passage 
through New Jersey — Arrival at New York, and laid in 

State in City Hall 239 

Leave New York for Albany — Arrival in Albany — Syra- 
cuse — Buffalo — Cleveland — Columbus — Indianapolis . . . 240 
liCave Indianapolis for Chicago — Arrival at Chicago — 
Leave Chicago for Springfield — Arrival at Springfield, 

Illinois 241 

The Funeral Procession at Springfield — The Guard of 
Honor, etc 242 



20 CONTENTS. 

Arrival of the Funeral Cortege at Oak Ridge Cemetery — 
The Vault— The Religious Exercises at the Tomb 243 

Last Sad Rites at the Vault — Depositing the Body into 
the Tomb — Rcminiscenses of the Funeral Cortege from / 
Washington to Springfield k\ 4 

Bishop Simpson's Funeral Oration at the Vault at Oaj/ 
Ridge Cemetery / . 245 

A brahara Lincoln is mourned by Twenty-five Millioiis of 
People ^'. 254 

The first plot to Assassinate President Lincoln 256 

Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln 2G0 

The Religious Character and Nobility of Heart of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. Address of the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, at Chicago, 
Illinois, on April 30th, 18G5 261 

Hon. George Bancroft's Oration in the city of New York. 275 

Henry AVard Beecher's Tribute to Abraham Lincoln, 
delivered in Plymouth Street Church, Brooklyn, on 
Sunday, April 23d, 1865 280 

Address of General Hiram Walbridge, in New York, on 
the death of President Lincoln 288 

Abraham I^incoln — By Henry Ward Beecher 293 

In Memoriam — Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr President — 
Ceremonies at the National Capital, February 12th, 1866.299 

Hon. George Bancroft's Oration— God in History — Growth 
of the American Republic — Territorial extent of the 
Republic — Prophecies on the consequences of Slavery 
— Despair of the Men of the Revolution — New views of 
Slavery — Slavery at Home— Slavery and Foreign Rela- 
tions — Squatter Sovereignty — Dred Scot Decision — 
Taney and Slave Races^— Secession Resolved on — The 
Election — Early Life of Abraham Lincoln — His Educa- 
tion—His progress in life — He goes to Washington — In 
what state he found the Country — His Inauguration — 
Uprising of the People — The War a World-wide War — 
Great Britain — Her Sentiments — Her Policy — Relations 
with England— France and the Monroe Doctrine — The 
Emperor Napoleon and Mexico — The perpetuity of Re- 
publican Institutions — The Pope of Rome and the Re 
bellion — The people of America — The Emancipation 
Proclamation — Russia and China— Continuance of the 
War — Lincoln's Assassination — The Greatness of Man — 
The Just died for the Unjust — Character of Lincoln — 
Palmcrston and Lincoln — Conclusion — Reception of the 
Oration — Pi'oceedings of Congress 303-328 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



HIS BIRTH AND ANCESTORS. 
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteeuth President of tba 
United States, and the skilful ruler under whose wise ad- 
ministration the country in its hour of peril has been en- 
abled to combat successfully with the traitors who have 
attempted its destruction, was born on the twelfth of 
February, 1809, in that part of Hardin county, Kentucky, 
which is now known as Larue. His father, Thomas Lin- 
coln, and his grandfather, Abraham, were born in Rock- 
ingham county, Virginia, a section of the " Old Dominion" 
to which their ancestors had migrated from Berks county, 
Pennsylvania. In the year 1Y80, the grandfather removed 
his family to Kentucky, where, taking possession of a 
small tract of laud in the wilderness, he erected a rude 
cabin, and proceeded to make his new home comfortable 
and productive. His daily labors were attended in their 
prosecution with great personal danger. There was no 
other resident within two or three miles, and the country 
was infested with Indians, who allowed no opportunity to 
pass to slaughter the white settlers. His gun was carried 

21 



22 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

as regularly to his work as was his axe or any other im- 
plement necessary to the successful clearing of the land, 
and at night when he retired to the bosom of his little 
flock, the faithful weapon was placed in a convenient cor 
ner, where it could be quickly grasped in the event of an 
attack from the wily enemy. 

Individuals and whole families living in the vicinity 
were murdered by the Indians, but Abraham Lincoln for 
four years escaped their bloodthirsty characteristics ; but 
at the end of that period, while clearing a piece of land 
about four miles from home, he was suddenly attacked, 
and killed, and his scalped remains were- found the next 
morning. The loss was a severe one to the widow, who 
now found. herself alone in the wilderness with her three 
Bons and two daughters, and with but little money with 
which to provide even the necessities of life for the young 
members of her household. Poverty made it necessary 
that the family should separate ; and all the children but 
Thomas bade adieu to their remaining parent, and left the 
county, the second son removing to Indiana, and the others 
to other sections of Kentucky. 

DESCEIPTION OF HIS PAKENTS. 

Thomas also left home before he was twelve years old, 
but subsequently returned to Kentucky, and in the year 
1806, married Miss Xancy Ilanks, who was also a native 
of Virginia ; so that it will be observed nearly all of the 
immediate ancestors of the President were born upon 
Southern soil. Thomas Lincoln and his wife were a plain, 
unassuming couple, conscientious members of the Baptist 
Church, and almost entirely uneducated. Mrs. Lincoln 
could read, but not write, while her husband could do 
neither, save so far as to scribble his own name in a style 
of caligraphy which a few of his more intimate frienda 
could decipher. He, however, appreciated the advan- 



LIFE AND SERVICiiS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 23 

tages of education, and honored and respected the superior 
learning of others. His kindness of heart was proverbial, 
and he was always industrious and persevering. His 
wife, although uneducated, was blessed with much natural 
talent, excellent judgment, and good sense, and these 
qvialifications, with her great piety, made her a suitable 
partnar for a man of Thomas Lincoln's attributes, and a 
mother whose pi-ecepts and teachings could not fail to be 
of vast benefit in the formation of her children's characters. 
This estimable couple had three children — a daughter, a 
son who had died in infancy, and Abraham. The sister 
attained the years of womanhood, and married, but subse- 
quently died without Issue. 

ABE" GOES TO SCHOOL. 
When Abraham, or "Abe," as he was already called at 
home and by his companions, was seven years of age, his 
name was entered for the first time on the roll of an edu- 
cational institution — an academy which had but little pre- 
tension in outward appearance, and the presiding genius 
of which had neither ambition nor ability to impart greater 
instruction than that which would enable his pupils to 
read and write. His term of schooling was, however, to 
be of short duration. 

THE LINCOLN FAMILY REMOVE TO INDIANA. 

Mr. Lincoln, although a Southerner by birth and resi- 
dence, had become early imbued with a disgust for slavery. 
He witnessed the evils of the " peculiar institution," and 
longed to be free from the disagreeable effects of a condi- 
tion of society which made a poor white man even more 
degraded than the unfortunate negro, whose energies and 
labors were controlled by an unprincipled and lazy master. 
With these sentiments he naturally desired to change hi3 
place of residence, and early in October, 1816, finding a 



24: LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

purchaser for his farm, he made arrangements for the 
transfer of the property and for his removal. The price 
paid by the purchaser was ten barrels of whiskey, of forty 
gallons each, valued at two hundred and eighty dollars, 
and twenty dollars in money. Mr. Lincoln was a tem- 
perate man, and acceded to the terms, not because he 
desired the liquor, but because such transactions in real 
estate were common, and recognized as perfectly proper. 

The homestead was within a mile or two of the Rolling 
Fork river, and as soon as the sale was effected, Mr. JMn- 
coln, with such slight assistance as little Abe coukl give 
him, hewed out a flat-boat, and launching it, filled it with 
his household articles and tools and the barrels of whiskey, 
and bidding adieu to his son who stood upon the bank, 
pushed off, and was soon floating down the stream on his 
way to Indiana, to select a new home. His journey down 
the Rolling Fork and into the Ohio river was successfully 
accomplished, but soon afterwards his boat was unfortu- 
nately upset, and its cargo thrown into the water. Some 
men standing on the bank witnessed the accident and 
saved the boat and its owner, but all the contents of the 
craft were lost except a few carpenter's tools, axes, three 
barrels of whiskey and some other articles. lie again 
started, and proceeded to a well-known ferry on the river, 
from whence he was guided into the interior by a resident 
of the section of country in which he had landed, and to 
whom he had given his boat in payment for his services. 
After several days of difficult travelling, much of the time 
employed in cutting a road through the forest wide enough 
for a team, eighteen miles were accomplished, and Spencer 
county, Indiana, was reached. The site for his new homo 
having been determined upon, Mr. Lincoln left his goods 
under the care of a person who lived a few miles distant, 
and returning to Kentucky on foot, made preparations to 
remove his family. In a few days the party bade farewell 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 

to their old home and slavery, Mrs. Lincoln and her 
daughter riding one horse, Abe another, and the father a 
third. After a seven dajs^ journey through an uninhab- 
ited country, their resting-place at night being a blanket 
spread upon the ground, they arrived at the spot selected 
for their future residence, and no unnecessary delays were 
permitted to interfere with the immediate and successful 
clearing of a site for a cabin. An axe was placed in 
Abe's hands, and with the additional assistance of a neigh- 
bor, in two or three days Mr. Lincoln had a neat house of 
about eighteen feet square, the logs composing which 
being fastened together in the usual manner by notches, 
and the cracks between them filled with mud. It had only 
one room, but some slabs laid across logs overhead gave 
additional accommodations which were obtained by climb- 
ing a rough ladder in one corner. A bed, table and four 
stools were then made by the two settlers, father and son, 
and the building was ready for occupancy. The loft was 
Abe's bedroom, and there night after night for many 
years, he who now occupies the most exalted position in 
the gift of the American people, and who dwells in the 
" White House" at Washington, surrounded by all the 
comforts that wealth and power can give, slumbered with 
one coarse blanket for his mattress and another for his 
covering. Although busy during the ensuing winter with 
his axe, ht d.d not neglect his reading and spelling, and 
also practised frequently with a rifle, the first evidence of 
his skill as a marksman being manifested, much to the 
delight of his parents, in the killing of a wild turkey, 
v^hich had approached too near the cabin. The knowledge 
of the use of the rifle was indispensable in the border 
settlements at that time, as the greater portion of the food 
required for the settlers was procured by it, and the family 
which had not among its male members one or more who 
could discharge it with accuracy, {\'as very apt to suffer 
from a scarcity of comestibles. 



26 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



DEATH OP MRS. LINCOLN-" ABE" LEARNS TO 
WRITE. 

A little more than a year after removing to Spencer 
couatj, Mrs. Lincoln died, an event which brought deso- 
lation to the hearts of her husband and children, but to 
none so much as to Abe. He had been a dutiful son, and 
she one of the most devoted of mothers, and to her in- 
struction may be traced many of those traits and charac- 
teristics for which even now he is remarkable. Soon 
after her death, the bereaved lad had an offer which prom- 
ised to afford him other employment during the long, 
monotonous evenings, than the reading of books, a young 
man who had removed into the neighborhood having 
offered to teach him how to write. The opportunity was 
too fraught with benefit to be rejected, and after a few 
weeks of practice under the eye of his instructor, and also 
out of doors with a piece of chalk or charred stick, he was 
able to write his name, and in less than twelve months 
could and did write a letter. 

HIS FATHER MARRIES AGAIN-ABE FINISHES 
HIS EDUCATION. 

During the next year Mr. Jjincoln married Mrs. Sally 
Johnston, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a widow-lady with 
three children, and who was admirably adapted to supply 
the vacancy which existed in the Lincoln family; and a 
superior woman, between whom and Abe a most devoted 
attachment sprung up, which ever afterwards continued. 
About the same time a person named Crawford moved into 
the neighborhood, and understanding how to read and 
write and the rudiments of arithmetic, was induced to 
open a school, to which Abe was sent, and in which he 
greatly improved his knowledge of the first two branches, 
and sc on mastered the second. His school-garb comprised 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 27 

a suit of dressed buckskin and a cap made from a raccoon 
skin. His memory wa6 retentive, and as lie took an un- 
usual pride iu his studies, his close application made him 
a favorite scholar with his teacher, while his superior 
knowledge, limited though it was, caused him to be used 
by the more ignorant settlers as their scribe whenever they 
had letters to be written. A brief period at this school, 
and to use a fashionable phrase, his education was finished. 
Six months of instruction within the walls of an insigni- 
ficant school- house is all the education that Abraham Lin- 
coln has received during a long lifetime, a greater portion 
of Avhich has been spent in public positions, where ability 
and talent were indispensable requisites. 

BECOMES A HIRED HAND ON A FLATBOAT. 

For four or five years after leaving school, or until he 
was eighteen, he constantly labored in the woods with his 
axe, cutting down trees and splitting rails, and during 
the evenings, read such works as he could borrow from 
the other settlers. A year later, he was hired by a man 
living near by, at ten dollars a month, to go to New 
Orleans on a flatboat loaded with stores, which were 
destined for sale at the plantations on the Mississippi 
river, near the Crescent City, and with but one companion 
started on his rather dangerous journey. At night they 
tied up alongside of the bank, and rested upon the hard 
deck with a blanket for a covering, and during the hours 
of light, whether their lonely trip was cheered by a bright 
sun or made disagreeable in the extreme by violent storms, 
their craft floated down the stream, its helmsmen never for a 
moment losing their spirits, or regretting their acceptance 
of the positions they occupied. Nothing occurred to mar 
the success of the trip, nor the excitement naturally inci- 
dent to a flatboat expedition of some eighteen hundred 
miles, save a midnight attack bv a party of negroes, who, 



28 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

after a severe conflict, were whipped by Abe and his 
comrade and compelled to flee, and after selling their 
goods at a handsome profit, the young merchants returned 
to Indiana. 

THE FAMILY REMOVE TO ILLINOIS— ABE 
SEEKS HIS FORTUNE AMONG STRANGERS. 

In March, 1830, Mr. Thomas Lincoln removed his 
family to Illinois, their household articles being transported 
thither in large wagons drawn by oxen, Abe himself 
driving one of the teams. Upon the journey, and while 
crossing the bottom lands of the Kaskaskia river, the 
males of the family wore compelled to wade through 
water up to their waists. In two weeks they reached 
Decatur, Macon county, Illinois, near the centre of that 
State, and in another day were at the tract of land 
(ten acres) on the north side of the Sangamon river, and 
about ten miles west of Decatur. A log cabin was imme- 
diately erected, and Abe proceeded to split the rails for 
the fence with which the lot was to be enclosed. As a 
rail-splitter, as a tiller of the soil, or as a huntsman, to 
whose accuracy of aim the family depended in a great 
measure for their daily food, young Abraham Lincoln 
was active, earnest and laborious, and when in the follow- 
ing spring he signified his intention to leave his home to 
seek his fortune among strangers, the tidings were re- 
ceived by his parents and friends with the most profound 
sorrow. 

Confident that a more extended field of observation and 
action would be more suitable to his tastes and disposition, 
he packed up what little clothing he possessed, and went 
westward into Menard county. He worked on a farm 
in the vicinity of Petersburg, during the ensuing summer 
and winter, at the same time improving himself, in read 
iug, writing, grammar, and arithmetic. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAnAM LINCOLN. 29 



HE TAKES ANOTHER TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS- 
BECOMES MILLER AND SALESMAN. 

Early in the following spring he was hired by a man 
unmed Offutt, to assist in taking a flatboat to New 
Orleans ; and, as it was found impossible to purchase a 
suitable boat, Abe lent a willing and industrious hand in 
building one at Sangamon, from whence, when completed, 
it was floated into the Mississippi river. The trip was 
made, and his employer was so much gratified with the 
industry and tact of his hired hand, that he engaged him 
to take charge of his mill and store in the village of New 
Salem. In this position, " Honest Abe," as he was new 
called, won the respect and confidence of all with whom 
he had business dealings, while socially, he was much 
beloved by the residents — young and old — of the place. 
He was affable, generous, ever ready to assist the needy 
or to sympathize with the distressed, and never was 
known to be guilty of a dishonorable act. 

HIS SERVICES IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 

Early in the following year the Black Hawk War broke 
out, and the Governor ot Illinois calling for troops, Abe 
determined to offer his services ; and a recruiting station 
being opened in New Salem, he placed his name the first 
on the roll ; and by his influence inducing many of his 
friends and companions to do likewise, a company was 
soon organized, and Abe was unanimously elected captain. 
The company marched to Beardstown, and from there to 
the seat of war ; but during their term of enlistment — 
thirty days — were not called into active service. A new 
levy was then called for, and he re-enlisted as a private, 
and at the end of thirty days again re-enlisted, and re- 
Kuined with his regiment until the war ended. 



so LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



IS NOMINATED FOR THE LEGISLATURE AND 
IS DEFEATED. 

Soon after his return from this campaign, in the pro- 
gress of which he proved himself an efficient and zealou? 
soldier, although his regiment was not brought in conflict 
with the enemy, or as he subsequently expressed it, he 
" did not see any live fighting Indians, but had a good 
many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes," he was 
waited upon by several of the influential citizens of Isew 
Salem, who asked his consent to nominate him for the 
Ajegislature. He had only been a resident of the county for 
nine months, but as a thorough-going "Henry Clay man" 
.vas needed, he was deemed the most suitable person to run, 
particularly as it was believed that his popularity would 
ensure success in a county which had, the year before, 
given General Jackson a large majority for President. 
There were eight aspirants for the legislative position ; 
but, although Abraham received two hundred and seventy- 
seven votes out of two hundred and eighty-four, cast in 
New Salem, he was not elected, the successful candidate 
leading him a few votes. 

BECOMES A MERCHANT AND SURVEYOR. 

Soon after his political defeat he engaged in the mer- 
cantile business, but in a few months sold out, and under 
the tuition of John Calhoun (in later years President of 
the Lecompton Constitutional Convention) became' pro- 
ficient in surveying, an occupation which for more than a 
year he found very remunerative for a novice. He was 
a BO for a time Postmaster of New Salem. 

IS ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE-STUDIES 
LAW 

In August, 1834, he was >igain nominated for the Legis- 
lature, and was elected by a large majority ; and in I806. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 31 

1838, and 1840, was re-elected. While attending: the pro- 
ceedings of the first session, he determined to become a law- 
yer, and being placed in possession of the necessary books 
through the kindness of the Hon. John T. Stuart, applied 
himself to study, and in 1836 was admitted to practice at 
the bar. In April, 183t, he removed to Springfield, and 
became a partner of Mr. Stuart. 

A THRILLING INCIDENT IN HIS LEGAL 
CAREER. 

One instance which occurred during his early legal 
practice is worthy of extended publication. At a camp 
naeeting held in Menard county, a fight took place which 
ended in the murder of one of the participants in the 
quarrel. A young man named Armstrong, a son of the 
aged couple for whom many years before Abraham Lin- 
coln had worked, was charged with the deed, and being 
arrested and examined, a true bill was found against him, 
and he was lodged in jail to await his trial. As soon as 
Mr. Lincoln received intelligence of the affair, he addressed' 
a kind letter to Mrs. Armstrong, stating his anxiety that 
her son should have a fair trial, and offering in return for 
her kindness to him while in adverse circumstances some 
years before, his services gratuitously. Investigation con- 
vinced the volunteer attorney that the young man was the 
victim of a conspiracy, and he determined to postpone the 
ease until the excitement had subsided. The day of trial 
however finally arrived, and the accuser testified positively 
that he saw the accused plunge the knife into the heart of 
the murdered man. He remembered all the circumstances 
perfectly ; the murder was committed about half-past nine 
o'clock at night, and the moon was shining brightly. 
Mr. Lincoln reviewed all the testimony carefully, and 
then proved conclusively that the moon which the accuser 
had sworn was shining brightly, did not rise until an houi 



S2 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

or more after the murder was committed. Other dis- 
crepancies were exposed, and in thirty minutes after the 
jury retired they returned with a verdict of " Not Guilty " 

A PEOTEST AGAINST SLAVERY. 

On the third of March, 1837, a protest was presented 
to the House of Representatives of Illinois and signed by 
" Daniel Stone and Abraham Lincoln, Representatives 
from Sangamon county," which is the first record that wo 
have of the sentiments of the subject of our sketch on the 
slavery question. It was in opposition to a series of reso- 
lutions which had been adopted, taking an extreme South- 
ern view of slavery, for which Mr. Lincoln refused to vote, 
i!»nd subsequently handed in the protest. 

IS A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENTIAL 
ELECTOR. 

In every campaign from 1836 to 1852, he was a Whig 
candidate for Presidential Elector, and in 1844, he stumped 
the entire State of Illinois for Henry Clay ; and then 
crossing the line into Indiana, spoke daily to immense 
gatherings, until the day of election. His style of speak- 
ing was pleasing to the masses of the people, and hia 
earnest appeals were not only well received, but were 
productive of much benefit to his. favorite candidate. 
Accustomed from early childhood to the habits and pecu- 
liarities of all kinds and conditions of men — th*} refined 
and the vulgar, the intelligent and the illiterate, the rich 
and the poor^ — he knew exactly what particular style of 
language best suited his hearers, and the result was that 
he was always listened to with a degree of attention and 
interest which few political speakers receive. 

MR. LINCOLN ELECTED TO CONGRESS -HIS 
VOTES AND SPEECHES DURING HIS CON- 
GRESSIONAL TERM. 

In I84G, Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress fi\'ni the 



LIFE ANI> SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LIJ^COLN. 33 

Central District of Illinois, by a majority of over fifteen 
hundred votes, the largest ever given in that District to 
any candidate opposed to the Democratic party. Illinois 
elected seven Representatives that year ; and all were 
Democrats but Mr. Lincoln. He took his seat on the 
first Monday of December, 1841, and during the exciting 
session that followed, cast his vote pro or con on every 
important question, and on more than one occasion dis 
played his eloquence and superior argumentative ability. 
One of his first votes was given on the twentieth of De- 
cember in favor of the following resolution : 

"Resolved, That if, in the judgment of Congress, it be neces- 
sary to improve the navigation of a river to expedite and render 
secure the movements of our army, and save from delay and loss 
our arms and munitions of war, that Congress has the power to 
improve such river. 

"Resolved, That if it be necessary for the preservation of the 
lives of our seamen, repairs, safety, or maintenance of our ves- 
sels-of-war, to improve a harbor or inlet, either on our Atlantic 
or Lake coast. Congress has the power to make such improve- 
ment." 

On the twenty-second of the same month, he voted in 
favor of a similar resolution, and on the same day offered 
the following series of resolutions, which he introduced* 
with one of his characteristic speeches, humorous at one 
moment and logical at the next. Although, like the large 
majority of the Whig party opposed to the declaration of 
war with Mexico by the President, he never failed to vote 
for any resolution or bill which had for its object the send- 
ing of supplies to our troops who had been ordered to the 
Beat of war. The resolutions read as follows : 

" Whereas, The President of the United States, in his mes- 
sage of May 11th, 1846, has declared ' that the Mexican Govern- 
ment not only refused to receive him (the envoy of the United 
States) or listen to his propositions, but, after a long-continued 
series of menaces, have at last invaded our territory and shed 
the blood of our fellow -citizens on our own soil.' 

"And again, in his message of December 8th, 1846, that 'we 



34 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

had ample cause of war against Mexico long before the break- 
ing out of hostilities, but even then we forbore to take redresa 
into our own hands until Mexico herself became the a<jgressor 
by invading our soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of 
our citizens.' 

"And yet again, in the message of December 7th, 1847, that 
' the Mexican Government refused even to hear the terms of 
adjustment which he (our minister of peace) was authorized to 
propose; and, finally, under wholly unjustifiable pretexts, in- 
volved the two countries in war by invading the territory of the 
State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood 
of our citizens on our own soil.' 

" And ivhereas. This House is desirous to obtain a full knowl- 
edge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particu- 
lar spot on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was or 
was not at that time our own soil. Therefore, 

''Resolved, by the House of Representatives, That the Presi- 
dent of the United States be respectfully requested to inform 
this House, 

"1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens 
was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the 
Territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the 
Mexican revolution, 

" 2?^d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory 
which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Govern- 
ment of Mexico. 

" 3rd. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of 
people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the 
Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the ap- 
|)roach of the United States Army. 

"4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any 
and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on 
the south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the north 
and east. 

"5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority 
of them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the 
Government or laws of 'I'exas or of the United States, by con- 
sent or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at 
elections, or paying tax or serving on juries, or having process 
Berved upon them, or in any other way. 

"6^/i. Whethfir the people of that settlement did or did not 
floe from the approach of the United States Army, leaving un- 
protected their homes and their growing crops, before the blood 
was shed, as in the message stated ; and whether the first blood, 
80 shed, was or was not shed within the enclosure of one of tl e 
people who had thus fled from it. 

" 1th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his 
messages declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOl.N. 35 

and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of 
the President, through the Secretary of War. 

" Sth. Whether the military force of the United States was or 
was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had 
more than once intimated to the War Department that, in hia 
opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defence or pro- 
tection of Texas." 

On several occasions during the session, he voted for 
the reception of petitions and memorials in favor of the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, against 
the slave-trade, and advocating the prohibition of slavery 
in the territory that might be acquired from Mexico. 

On the seventeenth of February, 1848, Mr. Lincoln 
voted for a Loan bill reported by the Committee of Ways 
and Means, authorizing the raising of sixteen millions of 
dollars to enable the Government to provide for its debts, 
principally incurred in Mexico. 

On the eleventh of May, in moving to reconsider a vote 
by which a bill having reference to the public lands had 
passed, he made the following remarks : 

" He stated to the House that he had made this motion for 
the purpose of obtaining an opportunity to say a few words 
in relation to a point raised in the course of the debate on 
this bill, which he would now proceed to make, if in order.* 
The point in the case to which he referred, arose on the amend- 
ment that was submitted by the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. 
Collamer), in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, 
and which was afterwards renewed in the House, in -elation to 
the question whether the reserved sections, which, bj some bills 
heretofore passed, by which an appropriation of land had been 
made to Wisconsin, had been enhanced in value, should be re- 
duced to the minimum price of the public lands. The question 
of the reduction in value of those sections was, to him, at this 
time, a matter very nearly of indifference. He was inclined to 
desire that Wisconsin should be obliged by having it reduced. 
But the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. C. B. Smith), the Chair- 
man of the Committee on the Territories, associated that ques- 
tion with the general question, which is now, to some extent, 
agitated in Congress, of making appropriations of alternate sec 
tions of land to aid the States in making internal imprgver^Dt* 
and enhancing the prices of the section reserved, and tt* £■«!» 



36 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tlernan from Indiana took ground against that policy. He di<? 
not make any special argument in favor of Wisconsin ; but hi 
took ground gctierally against the policy of giving alternate sec 
tiona of land, and enhancing the price of the reserved sections 
Now, he (Mr. L.) did not at this time, take the floor for the 
pnrpose of attempting to make an argument on the general sub- 
j<'Ct. He rose simply to protest against the doctrine which the 
g'litleman from Indiana had avowed in tiie course of what he 
(Air. L.) could not but consider an unsound argument. 

' It might however be true, for any thing he knew, that the 
gentleman from Indiana might convince him that his argument 
was sound ; but he (Mr. L.) feared that gentleman would not be 
able to convince a majority in Congress that it was sound. It 
was true, the question appeared in a different aspect to persons 
in consequence of a difference in the point from which they 
looked at it. It did not look to persons residing east of the 
mountains as it did to those who lived among the public lands. 
But, for his part, he would state that if Congress would make a 
donation of alternate sections of public lands for the purpose 
of internal improvement in his State, and forbid the reserved 
sections being sold at $1.25, he should be glad to see the appro- 
priation made, though he should prefer it if the reserved sec- 
tions were not enhanced in price. He repeated, he should be 
glad to have such appropriations made, even though the reserved 
sections should be enhanced in price. He did not wish to be 
understood as concurring in any intimation that they would re- 
fuse to receive such an appropriation of alternate sections of 
land because a condition enhancing the price of the reserved 
sections should be attached thereto. He believed his position 
would now be understood, if not, he feared he should not be able 
to make himself understood. 

" But before he took his seat he would remark that the Senate, 
during the present session, had passed a bill making appropria- 
tions of land on that principle for the benefit of the State in 
which he resided — the State of Illinois. The alternate sections 
were to be given for the purpose of constructing roads, and the 
reserved sections were to be enhanced in yalue in consequence. 
When the bill came here for the action of this House, it had 
been received, and was now before the Committee on Public 
Lands — he desired much to see it passed as it was, if it could 
be put in a more favorable form for the State of Illinois. When 
it should be before this House, if any member from a section of 
the Union in which these lands did not lie, whose interest might 
be less than that which he felt, should propose a reduction of 
the price of the reserved sections to $1.25, he should be much 
obliged ; but he did not think it would be well for those who 
came from the section of the Union in which the lands lay, to 
do so. He wished it, then, to be understood, that he did not 
join in the warfare against the principle which had eng-aged the 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 

minds of some members of Congress who were favorable to im- 
provements in the western country. 

" There was a good deal of force, he admitted, in what fell 
from the Chairman of the Committee on Territories. It might 
be that there was no precise justice in raising the price of the 
reserved sectio".s to $2.50 per acre. It might be proper that 
the price should be enhanced to some extent, though not to 
double the usual price ; but he should be glad to have such au 
appropriation with the reserved sections at $2.50; he should be 
better pleased to have the price of those sections at something 
less ; and he should be still better pleased to have them without 
any enhancement at all. 

" There was one portion of the argument of the gentlemaa 
from Indiana, the Chairman of the Committee on Territories 
(Mr. Smith), which he wished to take occasion to say that he 
did not view as unsound. He alluded to tlie statement that the 
General Government was interested in these internal improve- 
ments being made, inasmuch as they increased the value of the 
lands that were unsold, and they enabled the Government to sell 
lands which could not be sold without them. Thus, then, the 
Government gained by internal improvements, as well as by tho 
general good which the people derived from them, and it might 
be, therefore, that the lands should not be sold for more than 
$1.50, instead of the price being doubled. He, however, merely 
mentioned this in passing, for he only rose to state, as the prin- 
ciple of giving these lands for the purposes which ho had men- 
tioned had been laid hold of and considered favorably, and as 
there were some gentlemen who had constitutional scruples 
about giving money for these purposes, who would not hesitate 
to give land, that he was not willing to have it understood that 
he was one of those who made war against that principle. This 
was all he desired to say, and having accomplished the object 
with which he rose, he withdrew his motion to reconsider." 

On the nineteenth of the following month he first had 
an opportunity to record his views upon the Tariff ques- 
tion, by voting in favor of a resolution instructing the 
Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expe- 
diency of reporting a bill increasing the duties on foreign 
luxuries of all kinds, and on "such foreign manufactures 
as are now coming into ruinous competition with Ameri- 
can labor." He subsequently voted for a resolution in- 
structing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire 
into the expediency of reporting a Tariff bill based upon 
the principles of the Tariff of 1842. 



38 LIFE AND SERVICES ' iP ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

On the 28th of July, 1848, the celebrated bill estab- 
lishing Territorial governments for Oregon, California and 
JNew Mexico, the peculiar feature of which was a provi- 
Bion prohibiting the Legislatures of California and JS'ew 
Mexico from passing laws in favor of or against slavery, 
and providing that the laws of the Legislatures should be 
subject to the sanction of Congress, was argued, and after 
an exciting debate, laid on the table, Mr. Lincoln voting 
with Mr. Webster, Mr. Corwin, and other illustrious col- 
leagues for this disposition of the bill. 

On the sixteenth of January, 1849, Mr. Lincoln oflTered 
the following substitute for a resolution which he had 
voted against, not being satisfied with all its provisions : 

" Resolved, That the Conimittee on the District of Columbia 
oe instructed to report a bill in substance, as follows : 

" Sec. 1. Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That no ptr- 
Bon not now within the District of Columbia, nor now owned by 
any person or persons now resident within it, nor hereafter born 
•within it, shall ever be held In slavery within said District, 
t iSec. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned 
by any person or persons now resident within the same, or here- 
after born within it, shall ever be held in slavery without the 
limits of said District : Provided, That officers of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, being citizens of the slaveholding 
States, coming into said District on public business, and remain- 
ing only so long as may be reasonably necessary for that object, 
may be attended into and out of said District, and while there, 
by the necessary servants of themselves and their families, with- 
out their right to hold such servants in service being impaired. 

" Sec. 3. 'I'hat all cliildren born of slave mothers within said 
District, on or after the 1st day of January, in the year of our 
Lord 1850, shall be free ; but shall be reasonably supported and 
educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their 
heirs or reproseiitatives, and shall serve reasonable service nfi 
apprentices to such owners, heirs, or representatives, until they 

respectively arrive at the age of years, when they shall 

be entirely free: And the municipal authorities of Washington 
and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, 
are hercb/ empowef^d and required to make all suitable and 
necessa'-y rrovinio'i for cuforcing obedience to this section, on 
the par^ o' both maBtere and apprentices. 

" S»^ i. That all persons now within this District, lawfully 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 

held as slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resi- 
dent within said District, shall remain such at the will of their 
respective owners, their heirs or legal representatives : Pro- 
vided that such owner, or his legal representatives, may at any 
time receive from the Treasury of the United States the full 
value of his or her slave, of the class in this section mentioned, 
apon whi:h such slave shall be forthwith and forever free : And 
provided further, That the President of the United States, th^ 
Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be 
a board for determining the value of such slaves as their owners 
desire to emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shal? 
be to hold a session for the purpose on the first Monday of eacb 
calendar month, to receive all applications, and, on satisfactory 
evident e in each case that the person presented for valuatioa 
is a slave, and of the class in the section mentioned, and is 
owned by the applicant, shall value such slave at his or her full 
cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the Treasury 
for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom. 

"Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and 
Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are 
hereby empowered and required to provide active and efficient 
means to arrest and deliver up to their owners all fugitive slaves 
escaping into said District. 

"Sec. 6. That the elective officers within said District of Col- 
umbia are hereby empowered and required to open polls at all 
the usual places of holding elections, on the first Monday of 
April next, and receive the vote of every free white male citi- 
zen above the age of twenty-one years, having resided within 
said District for the period of one year or more next preceding 
the time of such voting for or against this act, to proceed in 
taking said votes in all respects not herein specified, as at elec- 
tions under the municipal laws, and with as little-delay as pos- 
sible to transmit correct statements of the votes so cast to the 
President of the United States ; and it shall be the duty of the 
President to count such votes immediately, and if a majority 
of them be found to bo for this act, to forthwith issue his pro- 
clamation giving notice of the fact ; and this act shall only be 
in full force and effect on and after the day of such procla- 
mation. 

'• Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of 
crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall 
in nowise be prohibited by this act. 

"Sec. 8. That for all purposes of this act, the jurisdictional 
limits of Washington arc extended to all parts of the District 
of Columbia not included within the present limits of George- 
town." 

We have given a sufficient record of Mr. Lincoln's ser 
vices as a Representative in Congress, to show that in his 



40 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

numerous votes and remarks upon the slavery question, 
ho was uniformly consistent, and a determined opponent 
to that peculiar institution which, Mr. Corwin truly re- 
marked, was an exotic that blights with its shade the soil 
in which it is planted. He with almost equal determina- 
tion opposed the annexation of Texas, and voted mora 
than forty different times in favor of the Wilmot Proviso. 

BECOMES A DELEGATE TO THE NATIOTffAL 
CONVENTION OF 1848. 

In the Whig National Convention of 1848, he was an 
active delegate, and earnestly advocated the selection of 
General Zachary Taylor as the nominee for the Presiden- 
cy, and during the canvass which followed, he traversed 
the States of Indiana and Illinois, speaking in behalf of 
his favorite candidate and the choice of his party. 

HE IS NOMINATED FOR UNITED STATES 
SENATOR, BUT WITHDRAWS. 

In 1849 he was a candidate before the Legislature of 
Illinois for United States Senator, but his political oppo- 
nents being in the majority. General Shields was chosen. 
From that time until 1854, he confined himself almost 
exclusively to the practice of his profession, but in that 
year he again entered the political arena, and battled inde- 
fatigably in the celebrated campaign which resulted in 
victory for the first time to the opposition of the Demo- 
cratic party in Illinois, and gave that State a Republican 
liCgislature, and sent Mr. Trumbull to the United States 
Senate. During the canvass, Mr. Lincoln was frequently 
brought into controversy upon the stand with Stephen A. 
Douglas, one of the discus-sions, that was held on the fourth 
of October, 1854, during the progress of the annual State 
Fair, being particularly remarkable as the great discussiop 
of tlie campaign. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 

At the election of United States Senator, nine-tentbs of 
the majority were Whigs and in favor of Mr. Lincoln, and 
the other tenth were Democrats, but not in favor of voting 
for a Whig, and for the purpose of securing the success of 
a man whom he knew was opposed to the Nebraska bill, 
and thus preventing the election of a third person who had 
little or nothing in common with the Republican party, 
which was then in its conception, he entreated his friends 
to vote for Mr. Trumbull. Mr. Lincoln was subsequently 
offered the nomination for Governor of Illinois, but de- 
clined the honor in favor of Mr. Bissell ; was also pre- 
sented, but inefiFectually, at the first Republican National 
Convention for Vice-President ; and at the next Presi- 
dential election headed the Fremont electoral ticket, and 
labored industriously in support of that candidate. 

AGAIN NOMINATED FOR THE SENATE— HIS 
SPEECHES IN THE CELEBRATED LINCOLN- 
DOUGLAS CAMPAIGN. 

On the second of June, 1858, the Republican State 
Convention met at Springfield, and nominated Mr. Lin- 
coln as their candidate for the United States Senate. At 
the close of their proceedings the honored recipient of their 
suffrage delivered a speech, which was a forcible exposi- 
tion of the views and aims of the party of which he was 
to be the standard-bearer. 

The contest which followed was one of the most ex- 
citing and remarkable ever witnessed in this country. Mr 
Stephen A. Douglas, his opponent, had few superiors as 
a political debater, and while he had made many enemies 
by his course upon the Nebraska bill, his personal popu- 
larity had been greatly increased by his independence, and 
by the opposition manifested to him by the Administra- 
tion. His re-election, however, to the Senate would 
have been equivalen'i to an indorsement of his acts and 



42 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

views by bis Commonwealth, and at tbe same time 
would hare promoted his prospects for the Presidential 
nomination. The Republicans, therefore, determined 
to dafeat him if possible, and to increase the probabilitiea 
of success in the movement, selected Mr. Lincoln as the 
nian who was most certain of securing the election. Illi- 
nois was stumped throughout its length and breadth bv 
both candidates and their respective advocates, and the 
people of the entire country watched with interest the 
struggle. From county to county, township to township, 
and village to village, the two leaders travelled, frequently 
in the same car or carriage, and in the presence of 
immense crowds of men, women and children — for the 
wives and daughters of the hardy yeomanry were na- 
turally interested — face to face, these two opposing cham- 
pions argued the important points of their political belief, 
and contended nobly for the mastery. 

During the campaign, Mr. Lincoln paid the following 
tribute to the Declaration of Independence 

"These communities, (the thirteen colonies,) by their repre- 
sentatives in old Independence Hall, said to the world of 
inen, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
b(irn equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with in- 
alienable rights; that among tliese are life, liberty, and tbe pur- 
suit of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the 
economy of the universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and 
noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His crea- 
tures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great 
family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped 
with the Divine image and lilveness was sent into the world to 
be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They 
grasped not only the race of men then living, but they reached 
forward and seized upon the furthest posterity. They createij 
a beacon to guide their children and their children's children, 
a,id the countless myriads who should inhaiiit the earth in other 
ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of 
prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they establislied these great 
self-evident truths that when, in the distant future, some man, 
some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none 
but rich men, or noue but white men, or none bat Anglo-Saxon 



LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4'j 

while men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration 
of Independence, and take courage to renew the battle which 
their fathers began, so that truth, and justice and mercy, and 
all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished 
from the land ; ro that no man would hereafter dare to limit 
and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of 
liberty was being built. 

" Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines 
conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take 
away from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its 
proportions ; if you have been inclined to believe that all men 
are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by 
our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back — return to 
the fountain »/hose waters spring close by the blood of the Re- 
volution. T link nothing of me, take no thought for the politi- 
cal fate of f fly man whomsoever, but come back to the truths 
that are in f le Declaration of Independence. 

" You m» J do any thing with me you clioose, if you will but 
heed these lacred principles. You may not only defeat me for 
the Senate but you may take me and put me to death. While 
pretending lo indifference to earthly honors. I do claim to be 
actuated i this contest by something higher than an anxiety 
for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant 
thought / f any man's success. It is nothing ; I am nothing ; 
Judge D( glas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal 
emblem d humanity — the Declaration of American Independ 
ence." 



PEIi PORTRAITS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

As 'R.e have stated, the exciting struggle was watched 
with ''ntense interest, not only by the members of the 
respective political parties of which the two orators were 
recognized leaders and champions, but by that portion of 
the different communities of the Union who do not gen- 
erally trouble their minds with political contests. Copious 
extracts from the speeches of both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas were published in the journals of the day, and 
criticisms of the orators and their discussions a;i>peared in 
the leading magazines and newspapers. 

From some of the latter we select the following, feir the 
purpose of showing in what estimation the talents and 



44 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ability of the honorable subject of our sketch were held 
at the time of which we now more particularly speak, and 
to give those readers of this work who have not had the 
oppoitunity to see Mr. Lincoln, an idea of his personal 
appearance : 

One writer gives the following pen-portrait- 

" Mr, Lincoln stands six feet and four inches high in his 
stockir:gs. His frame is not muscular, but gaunt and wiry ; 
his arms are long, but not unreasonably so for a person of 
his height ; his lower limbs are not disproportloned to liis body. 
In walking, his gait, though firm, is never brisk. He steps 
slowly and deliberately, almost always with his head inclined 
forward, and his hands clasped behind his back. In matters of 
dress he is by no means precise. Always clean, be is never 
fashionable ; he is careless, but not slovenly. In manner he is 
remarkably cordial, and, at the same time, simple. His polite- 
ness is always sincere, but never elaborate and oppressive. A 
warm shake of the hand, and a warmer smile of recognition, are 
his methods of greeting his friends. At rest, his features, though 
those of a man of mark, are not such as belong to a handsome 
man ; but when his fine dark gray eyes are lighted up by any 
emotion, and his features begin their play, he would be chosen 
from among a crowd as one who had in him not only the kindly 
Bentiments which women love, but the heavier metal of which 
full-grown men and Presidents are made. His hair is black, and 
though thin is wiry. His head sits well on his shoulders, but 
beyond that it defies description. It nearer resembles that of 
Clay than that of Webster; but it is unlike cither. It is very 
large, and, phrenologically, well proportioned, betokening power 
in all its developments. A sliglitly Roman nose, a wide-cut 
mouth, and a dark complexion, with the appearance of having 
been weather-beaten, complete the description. 

" In his personal habits, Mr. Lincoln is as simple as a child. 
He loves a good dinner, and eats with the appetite which goes 
with a great brain ; but his food is plain and nutritious. He 
never drinks intoxicating liquors of any sort, not even a glass 
of wine. He is not addicted to tobacco in any of its shapes. 
jle never was accused of a licentious act in all his life. He 
never uses profane language. 

"A friend says that once, when in a towering rage, in conse- 
quence of the efforts of certain parties to perpetrate a fraud on 
the State, he was heard to say: 'They sha'n't do it, d — n 'cm 1' 
but beyond an expression of that kind, his bitterest feelings 
never carry him. He never gambles ; we doubt if he ever in- 
dulges in any games of chance. He is particularly cautious 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4-5 

aootit incurring pecuniary obligations for any purpose whatever, 
and in debt, he is never content until the score is dischars^ed. 
We presume he owes no man a dollar. He never speculates. 
1'hc rage for the sudden acquisition of wealth never took hold 
of him. His gains from his ]u-ofession have been moderate, but 
BufScient for his purposes. While others have dreamed of gold, 
he lias been in pursuit of knowledge. In all his dealings he has 
the reputation of being generous but exact, and, above all, re- 
ligiously honest. He would be a bold man who would say that 
Abraham Lincoln ever wronged any one out of a cent, or ever 
spent a dollar that he had not honestly earned. His struggles 
in early life have made him careful of money; but his generosity 
with his own is proverbial. He is a regular attendant upon re- 
ligious worship, and though not a communicant, is a pew-holder 
and liberal supporter of the Presbyterian Church, in Spring- 
field, to which Mrs. Lincoln belongs. He is a scrupulous teller 
of the truth — too exact in his notions to suit the atmosphere of 
Washington, as it now is. His enemies may say that he tells 
Black Republican lies ; but no man ever charged that, in a pro- 
fessional capacity, or as a citizen dealing with his neighbors, he 
would depart from the Scriptural command. At home, he lives 
like a gentleman of modest means and simple tastes. A good- 
sized house of wood, simply but tastefully furnished, surrounded 
by trees and flowers, is his own, and there he live's, at peace with 
himself, the idol of his family, and for his honesty, ability, and 
patriotism, the admiration of his countrymen." 

Another person gives the subjoined sketch of him : 

"In personal appearance, Mr. Lincoln, or, as he is more 
familiarly termed among those who know him best, ' Old Uncle 
Abe,' is long, lean, and wiry. In motion he has a great deal of 
the elasticity and awkwardness which indicates the rough train- 
ing of his early life, and his conversation savors strongly of 
Western idioms and pronunciation. His height is six feet four 
inches. His complexion is about that of an octoroon ; his face, 
without being by any means beautiful, is genial-looking, and good 
humor seems to lurk in every corner of its innumerable angles. 
He has dark hair tinged with gray, a good forehead, small eyes, 
a long penetrating nose, with nostrils such as Napoleon always 
Mked to find in his best generals, because they indicated a long 
head and clear thoughts; and a mouth, which, aside from being 
of magnificent proportions, is probably the most expressive 
feature cf his face. 

"As a speaker he is ready, precise, and fluent. His manner 
before a popular assembly is as he pleases to make it, being 
either superlatively ludicrous, or very impressive, ile employs 
but little gesticulation, but when he desires to make a point, pro- 
duces a shrug of his shoulders, an elevation of his eyebrows, a 
3 



46 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAII/ F LINCOLN. 

depression of his month, and a general mmformation of counte- 
nance so comically awkward that it never fails to ' bring down 
the house.' His enunciation is .slow and emphatic, and his voice, 
though sharp and powerful, at times has a frequent tendency to 
dwindle into a shrill and unpleasant sound ; but as before stated, 
the peculiar characteristic of his delivery is the remarkable mo- 
bility of his features, the frequent contortions of which excite i 
merriment his words could not produce." 

A tliinl says : 

" In perhaps the severest test that could have been applied 
to any man's temper — his political contest with Senator Doug- 
las in 1858 — Mr. Lincoln not only proved himself an able speaker 
and a good tactician, but demonstrated that it is possible to 
carry on the fiercest political warfare without once descending 
to rude personality and course denunciation. We have it on 
the authority of a gentleman who followed Abraham Lincoln 
throughout the whole of that campaign, that, in spite of all the 
temptations to an opposite course to which he was continuously 
exposed, no personalities against his opponent, no vituperation 
or coarseness, ever defiled his lips. His kind and genial nature 
lifted him above a resort to any such weapons of political warfare, 
and it was the commonly-expressed regret of fiercer natures that 
he treated his opponent too courteously and urbanely. Vulgar 
personalities and vituperation are the last thing that can be 
truthfully charged against Abraham Lincoln. His heart is too 
genial, his good sense too strong, and his innate self-respect too 
predominant to permit him to indulge in them. His nobility 
of nature — and we may use the term advisedly — has been as 
manifest throughout his whole career as bis temperate habits, 
bis self-reliance, and his mental and intellectual power." 

And a fourtli, a distinguished scholar, after listening to 
a speech delivered at Galesburgh, thus wrote : 

''The men are entirely dissimilar. Mr. Douglas is a thick set, 
finely-built, courageous man, and has an air of self-confidence 
that docs not a little to inspire b's supporters with hope. M i-. 
Ijincoln is a tall, lank man, awkward, apparently dilfident, and 
when not speaking has neither firmness in his countenance nor 
lire in his eye. 

" Mr. Lincoln has a rich, silvery voice, enunciates with great 
distinctness, and has a fine command of language. He com- 
menced by u review of the points Mr. Douglas had made. In 
this he showed great tact, and his retorts, though gentlemanly, 
were sharp, and reached to the core the subject in dispute. 
While he gave but little time to the work of review, we did not 
feel that any thing was omitted which deserved attention 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

" He then proceeded to defend the Republican party. Here 
he charged Mr. Douglas with doing nothing for freedom ; with 
disregarding the rights and interests of the colored man: and 
for about forty minutes he spoke with a power that we have 
seldom heard equalled. There was a grandeur in his thoughts, 
a comprehensiveness in his arguments, and a binding force in his 
conclusions, which were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng 
were silent as death ; every eye was fi.xed upon the speaker, 
and all gave him serious attention. He was the tall man elo- 
quent ; his countenance glowed with animation, and his eye 
glistened with an intelligence that made it lustrous. He was nc 
longer awkward and ungainly; but graceful, bold, commanding 

" Mr. Douglas had been quietly smoking up to this time ; but 
here he forgot his cigar and listened with anxious attention. 
When he rose to reply he appeared excited, disturbed, and his 
second effort seemed to us vastly inferior to his first, Mr. Lin- 
coln had given him a great task, and Mr. Douglas had not time 
to answer^him, even if he had the ability " 

MR. LINCOLN DEFEATED BY MR. DOUGLAS. 

The election-day at length arrived, and although the 
efforts of Mr. Lincoln resulted in an immense increase of 
the Republican vote, whatever aspirations he had for per- 
sonal success were frustrated. A vote of 126,084 was 
cast for the Republican candidates, 121,940 for the Doug- 
las Democrats, and 5,091 for the Lecompton candidates, 
but Mr. Douglas was elected United States Senator by 
the Legislature, in which his supporters had a majority 
of eight on joint ballot. 

Although defeated in the liope of securing Mr. Lincoln 
a,s their representative in the United States Senate, the 
Republicans were not discouraged, and from that time de- 
termined that their favorite leader shouhl be rewarded 
with even more e.xalted honors. 

IS NAMED FOR THE PRESIDENCY— EVIDENCE 
OF HIS SKILL AS A RAIL-SPLITTER. 

Tie was immediately mentioned prominently for the 
Presidency, and at a meeting of the Illinois State Repub- 
lican Convention, where he was present as a spectator, a 



iS LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

veteran Democrat of Macon county brought in and pre- 
sented to the Convention two old fence-rails, gayly deco- 
rated with flags and ribbons, and upon which the follow- 
ing words were inscribed : 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 


THE RAIL CANDIDATE 


FOR PRESIDENT IN 18 GO 


Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830, by 
' Thos. Hanks and Abe Lincoln — whose 
father was the first pioneer 
of Macon county. 



The event occasioned the most unbounded enthusiasm, 
and for several minutes the most deafening applause re- 
sounded through the building. Mr. Lincoln was vocifer- 
ously called for, and arising from his seat, modestly ac- 
knowledged that he had split rails some thirty jcavs pre- 
vious in Macon county, and he was informed that those 
before him were a small portion of the product of his 
labor with the axe. 

The fame of the able advocate of Republican principles 
mduced the members of that party in other States to se- 
cure his voice and influence in their behalf, and in Mie fall 
of 1859 he made several effective speeches in favor of the 
cause. 

HIS GREAT SPEECH AT THE COOPER INSTI- 
TUTE, NEW YORK. 

On the twenty-seventh of February, ISGO, he mode the 
following forcible speech at tbe Cooper Institute, lNe\7 
York, before an immense audience : 

" Mr. President and Fellow-citizens op New York : 
The facts with wliich I shall deal tbis evening are mainlv oM 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. i.9 

and familiar, nor is there any thing new in the general use I 
shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in 
the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and obser- 
vations following that presentation. 

"In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as reported 
in 27ie Neiv York Times, Senator Douglas said: 

"'Our fathers, when they framed the Government undr.t 
which we live, understood this question just as well, and ever 
better than we do now.' 

" I fully indorse this and I adopt it as a text for this discourse 
I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and agreed starting 
point for the discussion between Republicans and that wing of 
Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the 
inquiry : ' What was the understanding those fathers had of the 
questions mentioned ?' 

" What is the frame of Government under wh^cb we live? 

"'I'he answer must be: ' Tae Constitution .^f the Unites* 
States.' That Constitution consists of Xbe orig.nai, trained iu 
1787 (and under which the present Government first went intt 
operation), and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first 
ten of which were framed in 1789. 

" Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution ? I sup 
pose the ' thirty-nine' who signed the original instrument may 
be fairly called our fathere who framed that part of the present 
Government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, 
and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the 
opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their 
names being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, 
need not now be repeated. 

" I take these ' thirty-nine,' for the present, as being ' om 
fathers who framed the Government under which we live.' 

" What is the question which according to the text, those 
fathers understood just as well, and even better than we do 
now ? 

" It is this : Does the proper division of local from federal 
authority, or any thing in the Constitution, forbid our Federal 
Government control as to slavery in our Federal Territories ? 

"Upon this, Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans 
the negative. This affirmative and denial form an issue ; and 
this issue — this question— is precisely what the text declares 
our fathers understood better than we. 

" Let us now inquire whether the ' thirty-nine,' or any of them, 
ever acted upon this question ; and if they did, how they acted 
upon it — how they expressed that better understanding. 

'■ In 1784 — three years before the Constitution- — the United 
States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and no other — 
the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question 
of prohibiting slavery in that Territory ; and four of the 
* thirty-nine' who afterward framed the Constitution were in tluit 



50 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Congress, and voted on that question. Of tbese, Roger Sher- 
man, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson, voted for the pro- 
hibition — thus showing that, in their understanding, no line 
dividing local from Federal authority, nor any thing else, prop- 
erly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
federal territory. The other of the four — James Mcllenry — 
voted against the prohibition, showing that, for some cause, he 
thought it improper to vote for it. 

"In 1737, still before the Constitution, but while the Con- 
vention was in session framing it, and while the Northwestern 
Territory still was the only territory owned by the United States 
— the same question of prohibiting slavery iu the territory 
again came before the Congress of the Confederation ; and three 
more of the ' thirty-nine' who afterward signed the Constitution, 
were in that Congress, and voted on the question. They were 
William Blount, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin ; and 
they all voted for the prohibition — thus showing that, in their 
understanding, uo line dividing local from federal authority, nor 
any thing else, properly forbids the Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in federal territory. This time the pro- 
hibitiQn became a law, being part of what is now well known as 
the Ordinance of '87. 

" The question of federal control of slavery in the territories, 
seems not to have been directly before the Convention which 
framed the original Constitution ; and hence it is not recorded 
that the ' thirty-nine' or any of them, while engaged on that 
instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question. 

" In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Con- 
stitution, an act was passed to enforce the Ordinance of '87 
including the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Terri- 
tory. The bill for this act was reported by one of the 'thirty- 
nine,' Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of 
Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its 
stages without a word of opposition, and finally passed both 
branches without yeas and nays, which is equivalent to an unani- 
mous passage. In this Congress there were sixteen of the 
' thirty-nine' fathers who framed the original Constitution. 
They were John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Wm. S. Johnson, 
Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Thos. Fitzsimmons. William 
Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Patterson, 
George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, Pierce Butler, 
Daniel Carrol, James Madison. 

" This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local 
rrom federal authority, nor any thing in the Constitution, 
properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery iu the federal 
territory; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their 
oath to support the Constitution, would Lave constrained them 
to oppose the prohibition. 

"Again, George Washington, another of the ' thirty-nine.' 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 

was then President of the United States, and, as such, approved 
and signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and 
thus showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local 
from federal authority, nor any thing in the Constitution, for- 
bade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in federal 
territory. 

" No great while after the adoption of the original Constita 
tion. North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the 
country now constituting the State of Tennessee ; and a few 
years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States 
of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was 
made a condition by the ceding States that the Federal Gov- 
ernment should not prohibit slavery in the ceded country. 
Besides this, slavery was then actually in the ceded country. 
Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of these 
countries did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But 
they did interfere with it— take control of it — even there, to a 
certain extent. In 1798, Congress organized the Territory of 
Mississippi. In the act of organization they prohibited the 
bringing of slaves into the Territory, from any place without the 
United States, by fine and giving freedom to slaves so brought. 
This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and 
nays. In that Congress were three of the ' thirty-nine' who 
framed the original Constitution. 'IMiey were John Langdon, 
George Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all, probably, 
voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition 
to it upon record, if, in their r.nderstanding, any line dividing 
local from federal authority, or any thing in the Constitution, 
properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to 
slavery in federal territory. 

"Id 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana 
country. Our former territorial accpiisitions came from certain 
of our own States ; but this Louisiana country was acquired 
from a foreign nation. In 1804, Congress gave a territorial 
organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State 
of Ijouisiana. New Orleans, lying within tliat part, was an old 
and comparatively large city. There were o;her considerable 
towns and settlements, and slavery wa^ extensively and 
thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not. in 
the Territorial Act, prohibit Slavery ; but they did interfere 
with it — take control of it — in a more marked and extensive 
way than they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance 
of the provision therein made, in relation to slaves, was : 

^'First. That no slave should be imported into the territory 
from foreign parts. 

''Second. 'J'iiat no slave should be carried into it who had 
been imported into the United States since the first day of May, 
1798. 

"Third That no slave should be carried into it, except bj 



52 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the owner, and for his own use as a settlor ; the penalty in all 
the cases being a fine upon the violator of the law, and freedom 
to the slave. 

" This act also was passed without yeas and nays. In ♦he 
Congress which passed it, there were two of rbe ' thirty-umo.' 
They were Abrahan\ Baldwin and Jonatlvau Djiyton. Ae 
stated in the ease of Mississippi, it is probable tl.ey ooth voto( . 
for it. They would not have allowed it to pass without recoid 
ing their opposition to it, if. in their understanding, it violated 
either the Hue proper dividing local from Federal authority oi 
any provision of the Constitution. 

"lu lS19-2t\ cauie and passed the Missouri question. Many 
votes were taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Con- 
gress, npou the various phases of the general question, 'i'wo 
of the 'thirty-nine' — Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were 
members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery 
prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as 
steadily voted against slavery prohibition and against all ooie- 
promises. l>y tliis Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, 
no line dividing local from Federal anthoiity, nor auy thing iu 
the Constitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery 
iu federal territory ; while Mr. Pinckney, by his voies, showed 
that iu his understanding there was some sufficient reason for 
opposing such prohibition in that case. 

•'The cases 1 have mentioned are the only acts of the 'thirty- 
nine,' or of any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have 
been able to discover. 

"To enumerate the persons who thus acted, as being four iu 
17S4, three iu ITS", seveuteen iu ITS'J, three in 1798, two in 
1804, and two in 1819-20 — there would be thirty-one of them. 
But this would be counting John Laugdon, Roger Sherman, 
"William Few, Rufus King, and tioorge Ri-ad. each twice, and 
Abraham Baldwin fonr times. The true number of those of the 
'thirty-nine' whom I have shown to have acted upon the ques- 
tion, which, by the text they understood better than we, is 
twenty-three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon it 
in any way. 

•' Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our ' thirty-nine' 
fathers who framed the government under which we live, who 
have, upon their official responsibility and their corporal oaths, 
acted upon the very question which the text affirms they'un- 
derstood just as well, and even b.'tter than we do now;' and 
twenty-one of them — a clear majority of the ' thirty-nine' — so 
ftcting upon it as to make them guilty of gross political impro- 
priety, and wilful perjury, if. in their understanding, any proper 
division between local and Federal authority, or >.ny thing in the 
Constitution they iiad made themselves, and sworn to support, 
forbade the Federal government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal territories Tius the twenty-one acted ; and, as actions 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

speak louder than words, so actions under such responsibility 
Bpeak still louder. 

"Two of the twenty-three voted against Congressional pro- 
hibition of slavery in the Federal territories, in the instances in 
which they acted upon the question. But for what reasons they 
sc voted, is not known. They may hav^- done so because they 
thou;5ht a proper division of local from Federal authority, or some 
provision or jiriiiciple of the Constitiition, stood in the way; or 
they may, without any such question, have voted against the pro- 
hibition, on what appeared to them to be suGBcient grounds of ex- 
pediency. No one who has sworn to support the Constitution, can 
conscientiously vote for what he understands to be an urfconsti- 
tutional measure, however expedient he may think it; but one 
may and ought to vote against a measure which he deems con- 
stitutional, if, at the same time, he deems it inexpedient. It, 
therefore, would be unsafe to set down even the two who voted 
against the prohibition, as having done so because, in their un- 
derstanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
or any thing in the Constitution, forbade the Federal govern- 
ment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

"The remaining sixteen of the 'thirty-nine,' so far as I have 
discovered, have left no record of their understanding- upon the 
direct question of Federal control of slavery in the Federal ter- 
ritories. But there is much reason to believe that their under- 
standing upon that question would not have appeared different 
from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been manifested 
at all. 

" For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have pur- 
posely omitted whatever understanding may have been mani- 
fested, by any person, however distinguished, other than the 
' thirty-nine' fathers who framed the original Constitution ; and, 
for the same reason, I have also omitted wliatever understanding 
may have been manifested by any of the 'thirty-nine' even, on 
any other phase of the general question of slavery. If we should 
look into their acts and declarations on those other phases, as the 
foreign slave-trade, and the morality and policy of slavery gen- 
erally, it would appear to us that on the direct question of Fed- 
eral control of slavery in Federal territories, the sixteen, if they 
had acted at all, would probably have acted just as the twenty- 
three did. Among that sixteen were several of the most noted 
anti-slavery men of those times — as Dr. Franklin, Alexander 
Hamilton, and Governeur Morris — while there was not one new 
known to have been otherwise, unless it may be John Rutledge, 
of South Carolina. 

"The sum of the whole is, that of our 'thirty-nine' fathers 
who framed the original Constitution, twenty-ooe — a clear ma- 
jority of the whole — certainly understood that no proper divisioQ 
of local from Federal authority nor any part of the Constitution, 
f )-bade the Federal government to control slavery in the Fed- 



54: LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

eral territories, while all the rest probably had the same under- 
standing. Such, unquestional)ly, was the understanding of our 
fathers who framed the original Constitution ; and the text 
affirms that they understood the question better than we. 

" But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of 
'the question manifested by the framers of the original Constitu- 
tion. In and by the original instrument, a mode was provided 
Cor amending it ; and, as I have already stated, the present 
frame of government under which we live consists of that 
original, and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted 
since. Those who now insist that Federal control of slavery in 
Federal territories violates the Constitution, point us to the 
provisions which they suppose it thus violates ; and, as I under- 
stand, they all fix upon provisions iu these amendatory articles, 
and not in the original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the 
Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the fifth amendment, 
which provides that ' no person shall be deprived of property 
without due process of law;' while Senator Douglas and his 
peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth amendment, 
providing that 'the powers not granted by the Constitution are 
reserved to the States respectively, and to the people.' 

" Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by 
the first Congress which sat under the Constitution — the identi- 
cal Congress which passed the act already mentioned, enforcing 
the prohibition of slavery in the northwestern territory. Not 
only was it the same Congress, but they were the identical, same 
individual men who, at the same session, and at the same time 
within the session, had under consideration, and in progress 
toward maturity, these Constitutional amendments, and this act 
prohibiting slavery iu all the territory the nation then owned. 
The Constitutional amendments were introduced before, and 
passed after the act enforcing the Ordinance of '87 ; so that 
during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the Ordinance, 
the Constitutional amendments were also pending. 

" That Congress, consisting in all of sevent^'-six members, in- 
cluding sixteen of the framers of the original Constitution, as 
before stated, were pre-eminently our fathers who framed that 
part of the government under which we live, which is now 
claimed as forbidding the Federal government to control 
slavery in the Federal territories. 

" Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to 
affirm that the two things which thai Congress deliberately 
framed, and carried to maturity at the same time, are absolutely 
inconsistent with each other? And does not such aliirmat-on 
become impudently absurd when coupled with the other affirma- 
tion, from the same mouth, tliiit those who did the two things 
alleged to be inconsistent understood whether they really were 
inconsistent better than we — better than he who affirms that 
thej are inconsistent? 



LIF.;, AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 

"It is surely safe to assume that the 'thirty-nine' framers of 
the original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the 
Congress which framed the amendments thereto, taken together, 
do certanly include those who may be fairly called 'our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live.' And so as- 
suming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in 
his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or any part of tlie Con- 
stitution, forbade the Federal government to control as to 
slavery in the Federal territories. I go a step further. I defy 
any one to show that any living man in the whole world ever 
did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might 
almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present 
century), declare that, in his understanding, any proper division 
of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, 
forbade the Federal government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal territories. To those who now so declare, I give, not 
only ' our fathers who framed the government under which we 
live,' but with them all other living men within the century in 
which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not 
be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. 

" Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misun- 
derstood. I do not mean to say we are bound to follow im- 
plicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so, would be to 
discard all the lights of current experience — we reject all prog- 
ress — all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would 
supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we 
should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, 
that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, 
cannot stand ; and most surely not in a case whereof we our- 
selves declare they understood the question better than we. 

"If any man, at this day, sincerely believes that a proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the 
Constitution, forbids the Federal government to control as to 
slavery in the Federal territories, he is right to say so, and to 
enforce his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument 
which he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have 
less access to history and less leisure to study it, into the false 
belief that ' our fathers, who framed the government under 
■which we live,' were of the same opinion — thus substituting falso- 
hood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If 
any man, at this day, sincerely believes ' our fathers, who framed 
the government under which we live,' used and applied princi- 
ples, in other cases, which ought to have led them to understand 
that a proper division of local from Federal authority, or some 
part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal government to 
control as to slavery in the Federal territories, he is right to say 
BO. But he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility 
of declaring that, iu his opinion, he understands their principles 



56 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

better than they did themselves ; and especially should he i»ot 
shirk that responsibility l)y asserting that they ' understood ihe 
question juat as well, and even better than we do now.' 

" But enough. Let all who believe that ' our fathers, who 
framed the government under which we live, understood this 
question just as well, and even better than we do now,' speak as 
tliey spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Republi- 
cans ask, all Eepublicans desire, in relation to slavery. As 
those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not 
to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because 
of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that tolera- 
tion and protection a necessity. Let all the guaranties those 
fathers gave it, be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly main- 
Uiined. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as 
1 know or believe, they will be content. 

"And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they will not — 
I would address a few words to the Southern people. 

"I would say to them : You consider yourselves a reasonable 
and a just people; and I consider that, in the general qualities 
of reason and justice, you are not inferior to any other people. 
Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you dc so only to de- 
nounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. 
You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing 
like it to ' Black Republicans.' In all your contentions with 
one another, each of you deems an unconditional condemnation 
of ' Black Republicanism' as the first thing to be attended to. 
Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an indispensable 
prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you to be admitted 
or permitted to speak at all. 

" Now can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and to 
consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves ? 

"Bring forward your charges and speciiications, and then be 
patient long enough to hear us deny or justify. 

" You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an 
issue ; and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce your 
proof; and what is it? Why, that our party has no existence 
in your section — gets no votes in your section. The fact is sub- 
stantially true; but does it prove the issue? If it does, then, 
in case we should, without change of principle, begin to set 
votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be sectional 
You cannot escape this conclusion ; and yet, are you willing to 
abide by it ? If you are, you will probably soon find that we 
have ceased to be sectional, for we shall gei votes in your sec- 
tion this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the 
truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the issue. 'J'he 
fact that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your 
making, and not of ours And if there be fault in that fact, 
that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show that 
we repel you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 57 

Yepel you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is oura ; 
bat this brings us to where you ought to have started — to a dis- 
cussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, 
put in practice, would wrong your section for the benefit of ours, 
or for any other object, then our principle, and we with it, are 
sectional, and are justly opposed and denounced as such. 
Meet us, then, on the question of whether our principle, put ia 
practice, would wrong your section ; and so meet it as if it were 
possible that something may be said on our side. Do you ac- 
cept the challenge? No? Then you really believe that the 
principle which our fathers, who framed the government under 
which we live, thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse 
it again and again upon their official oaths, is, in fact, so clearly 
wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment's 
consideration. 

" Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning 
against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell 
Address. Less than eight years before Washington gave that 
warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved 
and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of 
slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the 
policy of the government upon that subject, up to and at the 
very moment he penned that warning; and about one year after 
he penned it he wrote Lafayette that he considered that prohi- 
bition a wise measure, expressing, in the same connection, his 
hope that we should some time have a confederacy of free 
States. 

" Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since 
arisen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your 
hands against us, or in our hands against you? Could Wash- 
ington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that sectional- 
ism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate 
it? We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend 
it to you, together with his example pointing to the right ap- 
plication of it. 

" But you say you are conservative — eminently conservative — 
while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the 
sort. What is conservatism ? Is it not adherence to the old 
and tried against the new and untried? We stick to, contend 
for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which 
was adopted by our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live ; while you, with one accord, reject, and scout, 
and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting some- 
thing new. True, you dis.agree among yourselves as to what 
that substitute shall be. You have considerable variety of new 
propositions and plans, but you are unanimous iu rejecting and 
denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for 
reviving the foreign slave-trade; some for a Congressional 
Slave-Code for the Territories j some for Congress forbidding 



58 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the Territories to prohibit slivery within their limits ; some for 
maintaining slavery in the Territories through the Judiciary, 
some for the ' gur-reat pur-rinciple' that, ' if one man would en- 
elave another, no third man should object,' fantastically called 
' Popular Sovereignty ;' but never a man among you in favor of 
Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal Territories, according 
to the practice of our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live. Not one of all your various plans can show a 
precedent or an advocate in the century within which our go- 
vernment originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of 
conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of destructivencss 
against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations. 

"Again, you say we have made the slavery question more 
prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that 
it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It was 
not we, but j'ou, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. 
We resisted, and still resist, your innovation ; and thence comes 
the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that 
question reduced to its former proportions ? Go back to that 
old policy. What has been vvili be again, under the same con- 
ditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, re-adopt 
the precepts and policy of the old times. 

"You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves 
We deny it. And what is your proof? Harper's Ferry ! John 
Brown 1 John Brown was no Republican ; and yOu have failed 
to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enter- 
prise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, yon 
know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are in- 
excusable to not designate the man, and prove the fact. If you 
do not know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and especi' 
ally to persist in the assertion after you have tried and failed ti> 
make the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a 
charge which one does not know to be true is dimply malicious 
slander, 

"Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or 
encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair ; but still insist that our 
doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. Wo 
do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrine, and make 
no declarations which were not held to and made by our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live. You never 
deal fairly by us in relation to this afiair. When it occurred, 
some important State elections were near at hand, and you 
were in evident glee with the belief that, by charging the blame 
upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those elections. 
The elections came, and your expectations were not quite ful- 
filled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself, at least 
your charge was a slander, and he was not much inclined by it 
to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and deela- 
rations are accompanied with a continual protest against any 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 

interference wluitcver with your slales, or with you about your 
slaves. Surely, tliis does nut encourage tbera to revolt. True, 
we do, in comniou with our fathers, who framed the government 
undor which we live, declare our belief that slavery is wrong; 
bat the slaves do not hear us declare even this. For any thing 
we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know there is a Repub- 
lican party. I believe they would nut, in fact, generally know 
it but fof your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In 
your political contests among yourselves, each faction charges 
the other with sympathy with Black Eepublicanisra; and then, 
to give point to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to 
simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among the slaves. 

" Slave insurrections are no more common now than they 
were before the Republican party was organized. What in- 
duced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in 
which, at least, three times as many lives were lost as at Har- 
per's Ferry? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy 
to the conclusion that Suuthampton was got up by Black Re- 
publicanism. In the present state of things in the United 
States, I do not think a general, or even a very extensive slave 
insurrection, is possible. The indispensable concert of action 
cannot be attained. 'J'he slaves have no means of rapid com- 
munication ; nor can incendiary free men, black or white, sup- 
ply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels ; but 
there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable coq- 
uecting trains. 

" Much is said by southern people about the afTection of 
slaves for their masters and mistresses ; and a part of it, at least, 
is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and 
communicated to twenty individuals before some one of them, 
to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge 
it. This is the rule ; and the slave revolution in Hayti was not 
an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar circum- 
stances. The gunpowder-plot of British history, though not 
connected with the slaves, was more in point. In that case, 
only about twenty were admitted to the secret ; and yet one of 
tiiem, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that 
friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional 
poisonings from tlie kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations 
in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or so, will 
continue to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no gen- 
eral insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country 
for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such 
an event, will be alike disappointed. 

" In the language of Mr. Jeflerson, uttered many years ago, 
'It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation, 
and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the 
evil will wear otf insensibly ; and their place be, pari passu, 
filled up by free white laborers. If, ou the contrary, it is left t9 



60 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect 
held up.' 

" Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the powei 
of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoi^e of 
Virginia ; and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the 
slaveholding States only. 

"The Federal Government, however, as we insist, ha.'^ the 
power of restraining the extension of the institution — the power 
to insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur on any 
American soil which is now free from slavery. 

" John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insur- 
rection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In 
fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, 
Baw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its 
philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in his- 
tory, at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast 
broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself 
commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the 
attempt, which ends in little else than in his own execution. 
Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt 
at Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. 
'J'he eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, 
and on New England in the other, does not disprove the same- 
ness of the two things. 

"And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use 
of John Brown, Helper's book, and the like, break up the Re- 
publican organization ? Human action can be modified to some 
extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judg- 
ment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at 
least a million and a-half of votes. You cannot destroy that 
judgment and feeliBg — that sentiment— by breaking up the poli- 
tical organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely 
scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order 
in the face of your heaviest fire ; but if you could, how much 
would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out 
of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box, into some other clian- 
nel ? What would that other channel probably be ? Would tLe 
number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the 
operation. 

" But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a 
d'>'>ial of your Constitutional rights. 

" That has a somewhat reckless sound ; but it would bo pal- 
liated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere 
force of numbers, to deprive you of some right plainly written 
down in the Constitution. But we are proposing ao such thing. 

"When you make these declarations, you have a specific and 
well-understood allusion to an assumed Constitutional right of 
yours, to take slaves into the federal territories, and hold them 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN; 61 

tkcre as property. But no such right is specificcally written in 
the Coustitutiou. That instrument is literally silent about any 
such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right ha3 
any existence in the Constitution, even by implication. 

" Your purpose, than, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy 
the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce 
the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between 
you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. 

" This, plainly stated, is your language to us. Perhaps yo« 
will say the Supreme Court has decided the disputed Constitu- 
tional question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving tho 
lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision, the Courts 
have decided the question for you iu a sort of way. The Courts 
have substantially said, it is your Constitutional right to take 
slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there a3 
property. 

" When I say the decision was made iu a sort of way, I mean 
it was made in a divided Court by a bare majority of the Judges, 
and they not quite agreeing with one another in the reasons for 
malving it ; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters 
disagree with one another about its meaning, and that it was 
mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the statement 
iu the opinion that ' the right of property in a slave is distinctly 
and expressly affirmed in the Constitution.' 

" An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right 
of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly afBrmed in 
it. Bear in mind the Judges do not pledge their judicial 
opinion that such right is impliedly affirmed in the Constitution ; 
but they pledge their veracity that it is distinctly and expressly 
affirmed there — 'distinctly' that is, not mingled with any thing 
else — ' expressly' that is, iu words meaning just that, without 
the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning. 

" If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such 
right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would be 
open to others to show that neither the word ' slave' nor ' sla- 
very' is to be found in the Constitution, nor the word ' property' 
even, in any connection with language alluding to the things 
slave, or slavery, and that wherever in that instrument the slave 
is alluded to, he is called a ' person ;' and wherever his master's 
legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of as 
* ser-=-lce or labor due,' as a ' debt' payable in service or labor. 
Also, it would be open to show, by contemporaneous history, 
that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of 
speaking of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the 
Constitution the idea that there could be property in man. 

" To show all this is easy and certain. 

" When this obvious mistake of the Judges shall be brought 
to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will 
withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion 
based upon it ? . 



62 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LI^-COLN. 

"And then it is to be remembered that ' our fathers, who 
framed the Government under which we live' — the men who 
made the Constitutiun — decided this same Constitutional questioQ 
in our favor, long' ago — decided it without a division among them- 
selves, when making the decision ; without division amont^ 
themselves about the meaning of it after it was made, and so 
far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon any mistaken 
statement of facts. 

" Under all those circumstances, do you really feel yourselves 
justified to break up this Government, unless such a court 
decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to, as a conclusive 
and finaJ rule of political action. 

" But you will not abide the election of a Republican Presi- 
dent. In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the 
Union ; and then, yoa say, the great crime of having destroyed 
it will be upon us ! 

" That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and 
mutters through his teeth, ' stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, 
and then you will bo a murderer !' 

"To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money- 
was my own ; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no 
more my own than my vote is my owu ; and threat of death to 
me, to extort my money, and threat of destruction to the 
Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in 
principle, 

"A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desira- 
ble that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, 
and in harmony, one with another. Let us Republicans do our 
part to have it so. . Even though much provoked, let us do 
nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the 
southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly 
consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate 
view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and 
do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, 
let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them ? 

" Will they be satisfied if tlie Territories be unconditionally 
surrendered to them? 'We know they will not. In all their 
present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely 
mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. 
Will it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing todo with 
ih/asions and insurrections? We know it will not. We so 
know because we know we never had any thing to do with 
invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstaining does 
not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. 

" The question recurs, what v/ill satisfy them ? Simply thin : 
We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, con- 
vince them that we do lot them aione. This, we know by 
experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to 
convince them from the very beginning of our c rgauizatioa 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM IJNCOLN. 63 

but with no snccess. In all our platforms and speeches we have 
constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this 
has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to 
convince them is the fact tliat they have never detected a man 
of us in any attempt to disturb them. 

"These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, 
what will convince tbem ? This, and this only : cease to call 
slavery lorong, and join them in calling it right. And this must 
be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. Silence 
will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with 
them. Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted and en- 
forced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, 
whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. 
We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy 
pleasure. We must pull down our Free-State Constitu- 
tions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all 
taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe 
that all their troubles proceed from us. 

" I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in 
this way. Most of them would probably say to us, ' Let U3 
alone, do nothing to us, and say what you please about slavery.' 
But we do let them alone — have never disturbed them — so that, 
after all, it is what we say, which dissatisfies them. They will 
continue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying. 

" I am also aware they have not, as yet, in terms demanded 
the overthrow of our Free-State Constitutions. Yet those 
Constitutions declare the wrong of slavery, with more solemn 
emphasis, than do all other sayings against it ; and when all 
these other sayings shall have been silenced, the overthrow of 
these Constitutions will be demanded, and nothing be left to 
resist the demand. It is nothing to the contrary, that they do 
not demand the whole of this just now. Demanding what 
they do, and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop 
nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, 
that slavery is morally right, and socially elevating, they cannot 
cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal 
right, and a social blessing. 

"Nor can we justifiably withhold this, on any ground save 
our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all 
vords, acts, la?'?, and constitutions against it, are themselves 
■wrong, and ghauld be silenced, and swept away. If it is right, 
we canio't justly object to its nationality — its universality ; if it 
is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension — its 
enlargement. All they ask, we could readily grant, if we 
thought slavery right ; all we ask, they could as readily grant, 
if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our 
thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the 
whole controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not 
to blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right ; but, 



64 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? Can we 
cast our votes with their view, and against our own ? In view 
of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this 1 

" Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to "let i* 
alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity 
arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, 
while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the 
National Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free 
States ? 

" If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our 
duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of 
those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously 
died and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some 
hiiddle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the 
search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead 
man — such as a policy of * don't care' on a question about 
which all true men do care — such as Union appeals beseeching 
true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine 
rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repen- 
tance — such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to 
unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. 

" Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations 
against us, not frightened from it by menaces of destruction to 
the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have 
faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, 
dare to do our duty, as we understand it." 

IS NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES BY THE REPUBLICAN CON- 
VENTION. 

On the sixteenth of May, 1860, the Republican National 
Convention assembled in Chicago, for the purpose of 
nominating candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presi- 
dency. The first day was spent in organizing, and the 
second, in adopting rules for the government of the Con- 
vention and the platform of the party, and on the third, 
the body proceeded to ballot for the two candidates. 
Mr. Lincoln was nominated for President by Mr. Judd, 
of Illinois, and on the first ballot, received 102 votes, Mr. 
Seward receiving, on the same ballot, 113^ votes, and the 
balance being divided between the other candidates. On 
the second ballot, the vote stood : Lincoln, 181 ; Seward, 
lS4i; and on the third, Mr. Lincoln received 280^ votes, 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 65 

or within one and one-half of a nomination. One of the 
delegates then changed four votes of his State, giving them 
to Mr. Lincoln, thus nominating him, and then, amid a 
scene of the most intense excitement, vote after vote was 
changed to the successful candidate, until at length the 
nomination was made unanimous, The selection was re- 
ceived by the Republican voters of the country with the 
most unbounded enthusiasm, and immediate preparations 
were made for an arduous campaign. The antecedents 
of their standard-bearer were of such an honorable and 
noble character, that they felt convinced the different fac- 
tions among the opposition — indeed, all who were inspired 
more by patriotism than party predilections — would sup- 
port him in the canvass and at the ballot-box. The ar- 
chitect of his own fortunes, he had raised himself from 
obscurity to eminence and distinction. Born in a floorlesa 
log-cabin, in a Kentucl^y wilderness ; the child of humble 
and uneducated, but Christian parents ; and with no edu- 
cation save that received during six months tuition in an 
unpretending school-house, and from attentive study at 
home by the light of a log fire, Abraham Lincoln, by his 
indefatigable perseverance and energy, rapidly rose from 
one position of trust and responsibility to another, until 
he attained the nomination of a great political party for 
the highest office in the gift of the American people. 

IS NOTIFIED OP HIS NOMINATION— THE 
ADDRESSES ON THE OCCASION. 

The committee appointed by the Convention to notify 
Mr. Lincoln of his nomination, performed their duty 
tvithout delay, and upon arriving at his ^residence in 
Springfield, whither they were escorted by an immense 
concourse of citizens, the President of the Convention 
addressed the nominee as follows : 



66 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE CON- 
VENTION. 

"I have, sir, the honor, in behalf of the gentlemen who are 
present, a Committee appointed by the Republican Convention, 
recently assembled at Chicago, to discharge a most pleasant 
duty. We have come, sir, under a vote of instructions to that 
Committee, to notify you that you have been selected by the 
Convention of the Republicans at Chicago, for President of the 
United States. They instruct us, sir, to notify you of that 
selection, and that Committee deem it not only respectful to 
yourself, but appropriate to the important matter which they 
have in hand, that they should come in person, and present to 
you the authentic evidence of the action of that Convention ; 
and, sir, without any phrase which shall either be considered 
personally plauditory to yourself, or which shall have any refer- 
ence to the principles involved in the questions which are con- 
nected with your nomination, I desire to present to you the 
letter which has been prepared, and which informs you of the 
nomination, and with it the platform, resolutions and sentiments, 
which the Convention adopted. Sir, at your convenience, wo 
shall be glad to receive from you such a response as it may be 
your pleasure to give us." 

BEPLY OF MR. LINCOLN. 

In response, Mr. Lincoln said : 

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I tender 
to you, and through you to the Republican National (Jonvention, 
and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for 
the high honor done nie, which you now formally announce. 
Deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility 
which is inseparable from tliis high honor — a responsibility 
which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far 
more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose distin- 
guished names were before the Convention, I shall, by your 
leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the Convention, 
denominated the platform, and without unnecessary or unrea- 
sonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not 
doubting tiiat the platform will be found satisfactory, and the 
nomination gratefully accepted. And now I will not longer 
del.,r the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand." 

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE CONVEN- 
TION AND MR. LINCOLN. 

The following letter was addressed to Mr. Lincoln by 



LIFE A^U SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 67 

the President of the Convention, and a committee ap- 
pointed for that purpose : 

"Chicago, May \&h, 1860. 
" To TUK Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. 

" Sir : The representatives of the Republican party of the 
United States, assembled in Convention at Chicago, have this 
day by a unanimous vote, selected you as the Republican can- 
didate for the office of President of the United States to be 
supported at the next election ; and the undersigned were ap- 
pointed a Committee of the Convention to apprise you of this 
nomination, and respectfully to request that you will accept it. 
A declaration of the principles and sentiments adopted by the 
Convention accompanies this communication. 

" In the performance of this agreeable duty we take leave to 
add our confident assurance that the nominution of the Chicago 
Convention will be ratilicd by the suffrages of the people. 

" We have the honor to be, with great respect and regard, 
your friends and fellow-citizens." 

On the 23d, Mr. Lincoln addressed the following letter 
to the President of the Convention : 

" Sprtnofield, Illinois, May 2'ird, 1860. 
"Hon. (jIeorge Ashman, President of the Eepuhlican National 
"■Convention. 
" Sir : I accept the nomination tendered me by the Conven- 
tion over which you presided, and of which I am formally ap- 
prised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a Commit- 
tee of the Convention for that purpose. 

" The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accom- 
panies your letter, meets my approval ; and it shall be my care 
not to violate, or disregard it, in any part. 

" Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with 
due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented 
in the Convention ; to the rights of all the States and Territo- 
ries, and people of the nation ; to the inviolability of the Cou- 
Btitution, a..d the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of 
all, I am most happy to co-operate for the practical success of 
«he principles declared by the Convention, 

"Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 

" Abraham Lincoln." 

On the sixth of November, 1860, the election for President 
took place, with the following result : Mr. Lincoln received 
491,275 over Mr. Douglas ; 1,018,499 over Mr. Brecken- 



68 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ridge, and 1,215,821 over Mr. Bell ; and the vote waa 
subsequently procliiinicd by Congress to be as follows : 

For Abralicim Ijiiicoln, of Illinois 180 

For John C. Breckeuridge, of Keutucky 72 

For John Bell, of Tennessee 39 

For Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois V2, 

To describe the various movements and projects which 
were devised and consummated in the South between the 
time that Mr. Lincoln was elected and the date of his in- 
auguration, would require a much larger work than that 
which we now offer to the public, and we will therefore 
confine our account merely to those which it is unavoid- 
ably necessary to mention. The principal and most dia- 
bolical plot conceived and recommended by the traitors, 
was to prevent the inauguration by obtaining possession 
of the Federal Capital, or by assassinating Mr. Lincoln 
while on his way thither, or upon the day that the cere- 
monies were to take place. Whatever may have been the 
plan, or however large the reward offered to the villain 
who would accomplish the murderous deed, the object of 
their vindictivcness escaped their machinations, and still 
continues to administer the government wisely and faith- 
fully. 

LEAVES SPRINGFIELD FOR WASHINGTON — 
OVATIONS ON THE ROUTE. 

The President Elect left his home in Springfield, Illinois, 
on the eleventh of February, 1861, for Washington, having 
before leaving the depot addressed the following words 
of farewell to the thousands of his fellow-citizens who haa 
assembled at the place of departure : 

" My friends : No one not in my position can appreciate the 
Badness 1 feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I 
am. Here 1 have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here 
my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. T 
kuow not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 69 

opon me wbich is jjcrbaps greatpr than that which has devolved 
upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never 
■would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, 
upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed 
without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and in tho 
same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; and I 
hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that 
Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with 
which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate 
farewell." 

Along the route, multitudes assembled at the railway 

stations to greet him. At Toledo, in response to repeated 

calls, Mr. Lincoln appeared on the platform and said : 

" I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, at- 
tended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us 
believe, as some poet has expressed it, ' Behind the cloud the 
sua is shining still.' I bid you an affectionate farewell." 

He next proceeded to Indianapolis, where Mr. Lincoln 
was welcomed by the Governor of the State, and escorted 
by a procession composed of both Houses of the Legis- 
lature, the public officers, municipal authorities, military, 
and firemen. On reaching the Hotel he addressed the 
people as follows : 

^^Fellow-citizens of the State of Indiana : I am here to thank 
you much for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the 
very generous support given by your State to that political 
cause, which I think is the true and just cause of the whole 
country and the whole world. Solomon says ' there is a time to 
keep silence ;' and when men wrangle by the mouth, with no 
certainty that they meau the same thing while using the same 
words, it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence. The 
words 'coercion' and 'invasion' are much used in these days, 
and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if 
we can, that we do not misunderstand the meaning of those who 
use them. Let us get the exact definitions of these words, not 
from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly 
deprecate the things they would represent by the use of the 
words. What, then, is 'coercion V What is 'invasion ?' Would 
the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the con- 
sent of her people, and with hostile intent towards them, be in- 
vasion ? I certainly think it would, and it would be ' coercion' 
al»o if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the 
United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and 
other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, 



VU LIFE AND SEEVIGES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

or even withhold the mails from places where they were habil- 
nally violated, would any or all of these things be ' invasion' or 
' coercion ?' Do onr professed lovers of the Union, but who 
Bpitefnlly resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, un- 
derstaud that such things as these, on the part of the Unitec' 
States, would be coercion or invasion of a State? If so, their 
idea of means to preserve the object of their great affection 
would seem to be exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little 
pills of the honiccopathist would be much too large for it to 
swallow. In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would 
seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of ' free-love' 
arrangement, to be maintained on passional attiaction. By the 
way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State ? 1 
speak not of the position assigned to a State in the Union by 
the Constitution, for that is the bond we all recognize. That 
position, however, a State cannot carry out of the Union with 
it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule 
all which is less than itself, and to ruin all which is larger than 
itself. If a State and a County, in a given case, should be 
equal in extent of territory and equal in number of inhabitants, 
in what as a matter of principle, is the State better than the 
County? Would an exchange of name be an exchange of 
rights ? Upon what principle, upon Avhat richtful principle, may 
a State, being no more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in 
soil and population, break up the nation, and then coerce a pro- 
portionably larger subdivision of itsolf in the most arbitrarj 
way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a 
district of country with its people, by nu'rcly calling it a State ? 
Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting any thing. I am merely 
asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me to bid 
you farewell." 

Proceeding to Cincinnati, be received a most enthusi- 
astic welcome. Having been addressed by the mayor of 
the city, and escorted by a civic and military procession 
to the Burnet House, he addressed the assemblage in 
these words : 

" Felloxv-ciiizcns : I have spoken but once before this in Cin 
vjinnati. 'J'hat was a year previous to the late Presidential elec- 
tion. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere 
words, I addressed much of what I said to the Kentuckiano. 1 
gave my opinion that we, as Republicans, would ultimately beat 
them as Democrats, but that they could postpone the result 
longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the Presidency than 
they could in any other way. They did not, in any true sense 
of the word, nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has come 
certainly as soon as ever I expected. 



LIFE AXD SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 71 

" I also told them how I expected they would be treated after 
they should have been beaten, and now wish to call their atten- 
tion to what I then said : 

" ' When we do, as we say we will, beat you, you perhaps 
want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you — as far 
as I am authorized to speak for the opposition — what we mean 
to do with you. We mean to treat you as near as we possibly 
can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. Wft 
mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your 
institutions ; to abide by all and every compromise of the Con- 
stitution. In a word, coming back to the original proposition, 
to treat you, as far as degenerate men — if we have degenerated 
— may, according to the example of those noble fathers, Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remember that 
you are as good as we ; that there is no difference between us 
othur than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recog- 
nize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in 
your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and to 
treat you accordingly.' 

" Fellow-citizens of Kentucky, friends, brethren : May I call 
you such ? In my new position I see no occasion and feel no 
inclination to retract a word of this. If it shall not be made 
good be assured that the fault shall not be mine.' 

In the evening he had a reception, when large crowds 
called upon him. 

On the next morning he left Cincinnati, and arrived at 
Columbus, where he was received with every demonstra- 
tion of enthusiasm. He visited the Governor in the Ex- 
ecutive Chamber, and was subsequently introduced to the 
members of the Legislature in joint session, when he was 
formally welcomed by the Lieutenant-Governor, to whom 
Mr. Lincoln responded in these words : 

"It is true, as has been said by the President of the Senate, 
that very great responsibility rests upon me in the position to 
which the votes of the American people have called me. I am 
deeply sensible of that weighty responsibility. I cannot but 
know, what you all know, that without a name — perhaps without 
a reason why I should have a name — there has fallen upon me a 
task such as did not rest upon the Father of his Country. And 
so feeling, I cannot but turn and look for the support without 
which it will be impossible for me to perform that great task 
I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that God 
who has never forsaken them. 

"Allusion has been made to the interest fylt in relation to the 
policy of the new Administration. In this, I have received 



72 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

from some a degree of credit for having kept silence, from 
others some depreciution. I still think I was right. In the 
varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the present, without a 
precedent which could enable me to judge for the past, it has 
seemed fitting, that before speaking upon the difficulties of the 
country I should have gained a view of the whole field. To be 
sure, after all, I would be at liberty to modify and change the 
course of policy as future events might make a change 
necessary. 

" I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. 
It is a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there 
is nothing going wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that 
when we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody. 
We entertain different views upon political questions, but 
nobody is suffering any thing. This is a most consoling circum- 
stance, and from it I judge that all we want is time and patience, 
and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken this people." 

On the 14th of February, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to 
Pittsburgh. At Steubenville, on the route, in reply to an 
address, he said : 

" I fear the great confidence placed in my ability is un- 
founded. Indeed, I am sure it is. Encompassed by vast diffi- 
culties, as I am, nothing shall be wanted on my part, if 
sustained by the American people and God. I believe the 
devotion to the Constitution is equally great on both sides of 
the river. It is only the different understanding of that instru- 
ment that causes difficulties. The only dispute is ' What are 
their ria;hts ?' If the majority should not rule who should be 
the judge? Where is such a judge to be found? We should 
all be bound by the majority of the American people — if not, 
then the minority must control. Would that be right ? "Would 
it be just or generous? Assuredly not." He reiterated, the 
majority should rule. If he adopted a wrong policy, then the 
opportunity to condemn him would occur in four yeara' time. 
" 'J'hcn I can be turned out and a better man with better views 
put in my place." 

The next morning he left for Cleveland, but before his 
departure he made an address to the people of Pittsburgh, 
in which he said : 

" In every short address I have made to the people, and ia 
every crowd through which I have passed of late, some allusion 
has been made to the present distracted condition of the coun- 
try. It is naturally expected that I should say something upon 
this subject, but to touch upon it at all would involve an 
elaborate discussion of a great many questiou5 and circum- 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 

stances, would require more time than I can at present com- 
mand, and would perhaps unnecessarily commit me upon matters 
which have not yet fully developed themselves. 

" The condition of the country, fellow-citizens, is an extra, 
ordinary one, and fills the mind of every patriot with anxiety 
and solicitude. My intention is to give this subject all the con- 
Bideration which I possibly can before I speak fully and 
definitely in regard to it, so that, when I do speak, I may 
be as nearly right as possible. And when I do speak, fellow- 
citizens, I hope to say nothing in opposition to the spirit of the 
Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the Union, or which 
will in any way prove inimical to the liberties of the people or 
to the peace of the whole country. And, furthermore, when 
the time arrives for me to speak on this great subject, I hope to 
say nothing which will disappoint the reasonable expectations 
of any man, or disappoint the people generally throughout the 
country, especially if their expectations have been based upon 
any thing which I may have heretofore said. 

" Notwithstanding the troubles across the river, [the speaker, 
smiling, pointed southwardly to the Monongahela River,] there 
is really no crisis springing from any thing in the Government 
itself. In plain words, there is really no crisis except an arti- 
ficial one. What is there now to warrant the condition of 
affairs presented by our friends 'over the river'? Take even 
their own view of the questions involved, and there is nothing 
to justify the course which they are pursuing. I repeat it, then, 
there is no crisis, except such a one as may be gotten up at 
any time by turbulent men, aided by designing politicians. 
My advice, then, under such circumstances, is to keep cool. If 
the great American people will only keep their temper on both 
sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end, and the ques- 
tion which now distracts the country will be settled just aa 
surely as all other difficulties of like character which have 
originated in this Government have been adjusted. Let the 
people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other 
clouds have cleared away in due time, so will tliis, and thia 
great nation shall continue to prosper as heretofore." 

He then referred to the subject of the tariff, and said : 

" According to my political education, I am inclined to be- 
lieve that the people in the various portions of the country 
should have their own views carried out through their represen- 
tatives in Congress. That consideration of the Tariff bill should 
not be postponed until the next session of the National Legisla- 
ture. No subject should engage your representatives more 
closely than that of the tariff. If I have any recommendation 
to make, it will be that every man who is called upon to serve 
the people, in a representative capacity, should study the whole 



74 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Bubject thoroughly, as 1 intend to do myself, looking to all -re 
varied interests of the common country, so thiit, when the tihia 
for action urrives, adcqiiaie protection shall be extended to the 
coal and iron of Pennsylvania and the corn of Illinois. Permit 
Mie to express the hope that this important subject may receive 
Buch consideration at the hands of your representatives that the 
interests of no part of the country may be overlooked, but that 
all sections may share in the common benefits of a just and 
equitable tariff.'' 

Mr. Lincoln, upon bis arrival in Cleveland, adverted to 
the same subject in the following terms : 

" It is with you, the people, to advance the great cause of the 
Union and the Constitution, and not with any one man. It 
rests with you alone. This fact is strongly impressed on my 
mind at present. In a community like this, wnuse appearance 
testifies to their intelligence, I am convinced that the cause of 
liberty and the Union can never be in danger. Frequent allu- 
sion is made to the excitement at present existing in national 
politics. I think there is no occasion for any excitement. The 
crisis, as it is called, is altogether an artificial crisis. In all 
parts of the nation, there are differences of opinion in politics. 
T'here are differences of opinion even here. You did not all 
vote for the person who now addresses you. And how is it with 
those who are not here? Have they not all their rights as they 
ever had? Do they not have their fugitive slaves returned now 
as ever ? Have they not the same Constitution that they have 
lived under for seventy odd years ? Have they not a position 
as citizens of this common country, and have we any power to 
change that position ? What, then, is the matter with them t 
Why all this excitement? Why all these complaints ? As I 
said before, this crisis is all artificial. It has no foundation in 
fact. It was ' argued up,' as the saying is, and cannot be argued 
down. Let it alone, and it will go down itself." 

On Saturday he proceeded to Buffalo, M'here he arrived 
at evening, and was met by an immense concourse of citi- 
zens, headed by Ex-President Fillmore. 

Arriving at the hotel, Mr. Lincoln was welcomed in a 
brief speech by the acting chief magistrate, to which he 
made a brief reply, as follows : 

"Mr. Mayor and Fellow- Citizens : — I am here to thank yon 
brietiy for this grand reception given to me, not personally, but 
as the representative of our great and beloved country. Your 
worthy mayor has been pleased to mention in his address to me, 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 75 

the fortunate and agreeable journey which I have had from 
home — only it is rather a circuitous route to the Federal Capi- 
tal. I am very happy that he was enabled, in truth, to congrat- 
ulate myself and company on that fact. It is true, we have 
had nothing thus far to mar the pleasure of the trip. We have 
not been met alone by those who assisted in giving the election 
to me; I say not alone, but by the whole population of tho 
fountry through which we have passed. This is as it should be. 
Had the election fallen to any other of the distinguished candi- 
dates instead of myself, under the peculiar circumstances, to say 
the least, it would have been proper for all citizens to have 
greeted him as you now greet me. It is an evidence of the de- 
votion of the whole people to the Constitution, the Union, and 
the perpetuity of the liberties of this country. I am unwilling, 
on any occasion, that I should be so meanly thought of as to 
have it supposed for a moment that these demonstrations arc 
tendered to me personally. They are tendered to the country, 
to the institutions 6f the country, and to the perpetuity of the 
liberties of the country for which these institutions were made 
and created. Your worthy mayor has thought fit to express 
the hope that I may be able to relieve the country from the pre- 
sent, or, I should say, the threatened difiiculties. I am sure I 
bring a heart true to the work. For the ability to perform it, I 
trust in that Supreme Being who has never forsaken this favored 
land, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent 
people. Without that assistance I should surely fail ; with it 
I cannot fail. When we speak of the threatened difficulties to 
the country, it is natural that it should be expected that some- 
thing should be said by myself with regard to particular mea 
sures. Upon more mature reflection, however — and others will 
agree with me — that, when it is considered that these difficulties 
are without precedent, and never have been acted upon by any 
individuoj^situated as I am, it is most proper I should wait and 
see the developments, and get all the light possible, so that, 
when I do speak authoritatively, I may be as near right as possi- 
ble. When I shall speak authoritatively, I hope to say nothing 
inconsistent with the Constitution, the Union, the rights of all 
the States, of each State, and of each section of the country, 
and not to disappoint the reasonable expectations of those who 
have confided to me their votes. In this connection, allow me 
to say that you, as a portion of the great American people, need 
only to maintain your composure, stand up to your sober con- 
victions of right, to your obligations to the Constitution, and 
act in accordance with those sober convictions, and the clouds 
which now arise in the horizon will be dispelled, and we shall 
have a bright and glorious future ; and, when this generation 
shall have passed away, tens of thousands shall inhabit this 
country where only thousands inhabit it now. I do not propose 
to address you at length. I have no voice for it. Allow mo 



76 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

again to thank you for this magnificent reception, and bid yon 
farewell." 

Mr. Lincoln then proceeded from Buffalo to Albany. 
Here be was met by tbe Mayor, the City Councils, and 
the Legislative Committees, and was conducted to tue 
Capitol, where he was welcomed by Governor Morgan, 
nnd responded briefly, as follows : 

"Governor Morgan: — I was pleased to receive an invitation 
to visit the capital of the great Einpire State of this nation, 
while on my way to the Federal capital. I now thank you, and 
you, the people of the capital of the State of New York, for 
this most hearty and magnificent welcome. If I am not at fault, 
the great Empire State at this time contains a larger population 
than did the whole of the United States of America at the time 
they achieved their national independence ; and I was proud to 
be invited to visit its capital, to meet its citizens as I now have 
the honor to do. I am uotified by your governor that this re- 
ception is tendered by citizens without distinction of party. 
Because of this, I accept it the more gladly. In this country, 
and in any country where freedom of thought is tolerated, citi- 
zens attach themselves to political parties. It is but an ordi- 
nary degree of charity to attribute this act to the supposition 
that, in thus attaching themselves to the various parties, tach 
man, in his own judgment, supposes he thereby best advances 
the interests of the whole country. And wi\en an election is 
passed, it is altogether befitting a free people that, until the 
next election, they should be one people. The reception you 
have extended me to-day is not given to me personally. It 
should not be so, but as the representative, for the time being, 
of the majority of the nation. If the election had fallen to any 
of the more distingnished citizens, who received the support of 
the people, this same honor should have greeted him that greets 
me this day, in testimony of the unanimous devotion of the whole 
people to the Constitution, the Union, and to tlie perpetual 
liberties of succeeding generations in this country. I have 
neither the voice nor the strength to address you at any greater 
length. I beg you will, therefore, accept my most grateful 
thanks for this manifest devotion — not to me but to the institu- 
tions of this great and glorious country." 

He was then conducted to the Legislative halls, where, 
in reply to an address of welcome, he again adverted to 
the troubles of the country in the following terms : 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Legislature of th« 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 77 

State of New York : — It is with feelings of great difBJence, aucf, 
I may say, feelings even of awe, perhaps greater than I have re- 
cently experienced, that I meet you here in this place. The 
history of this great State, the renown of its great men, who 
have St jod in this chamber, and have spoken their thoughts, all 
crowd around my f;i.ucy, and incline me to shrink from an attempt 
to address you. Yet I have some confidence given me by the 
generous manner in which you have invited me, and the still 
more generous manner in which you have received me. You 
have invited me and received me without distinction of party. 
I could not for a moment suppose that this has been done in any 
considerable degree with any reference to my personal self. It 
is very much more grateful to me that this reception and the 
invitation preceding it were given to me as the representative 
of a free people than it could possibly have been were they but 
the evidence of devotion to me or to any one man. It is true 
that, while I hold myself, without mock-modesty, the humblest 
of all the individuals who have ever been elected President of the 
United States, I yet have a more difiQcult task to perform than 
any one of them has ever encountered. You have here gen- 
erously tendered me the support, the united support, of the great 
Empire Slate. For this, in behalf of the nation — in behalf of 
the President and of the future of the nation — iu behalf of the 
cause of civil liberty iu all time to come — I most gratefully 
thank you. I do not propose now to enter upon any expressions 
as to the particular line of policy to be adopted with reference 
to the difficulties that stand before us in the opening of the in- 
coming Administration. 1 deem that it is just to the country, 
to myself, to you, that I should see every thing, hear every 
thing, a-nd have every light that can possibly be brought within 
my reach to aid me before I shall speak officially, in order that, 
when I do speak, I may have the best possible means of taking 
correct and true grounds. For this reason, I do not now an- 
nounce any thing in the way of policy for the new Administra- 
tion. When the time comes, according to the custom of the 
government, I shall speak, and speak as well as I am able for 
the good of the present and of the future of this country — for the 
good of the North and of the South — for the good of one and 
of the other, and of all sections of it. In the meantime, if we 
have patience, if we maintain our equanimity, though some may 
allow themselves to run off in a burst of passion, I still have con- 
fidence that the Almighty Jlulcr of the Universe, through tho 
instrumentality of this great and intelligent people, can and will 
bring us through this difficulty, as he has heretofore brought us 
through all preceding difficulties of the country. Relying upou 
this, and again thanking you, as I forever shall, in my heart, for 
thiB generous reception you have given me, I bid you farewell." 

At Albany, he was met by a delegatioa from the oily 
authorities of New York, and ou the 19th started for that 



78 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

City. At Poughkeepsie, he was welcomed by the Mayor 
of the city. Mr. Lincohi, ia reply, said : 

" I am grateful for this cordial welcome, and I am gratified 
that this immense multitude has come together, not to meet the 
individual man, hut the man who, for the time being, will humbly 
but earnestly represent the majesty of the nation. These re- 
ceptions have been given me at otiier places, and, as here, by 
men of diflerent parties, and not by one party alone. It shows 
an earnest elFort oti the part of all to save, not the country, for 
the country can save itself, but to save the institutions of the 
country— those institutions under which, for at least three- 
quarters of a century, we have become the greatest, the most 
intelligent, and the liappiest people in the world. These mani- 
festations show that we all make common cause for these ob- 
jects ; that if some of us are successful in an election, and others 
are beaten, those who are beaten are not in favor of siniiing the 
ship in consequence of defeat, but are earnest in their purpose 
to sail it safely through the voyage in hand, and, in so far as they 
may think there has been any mistake in the election, satisfying 
themselves to take their chance at setting the matter right tlie 
next tinic. That course is entirely right. 1 am not sure — I do 
not pretend to be s,ure — that in the selection of the individual 
who has been elected this term, tlie wisest choice has been made. 
I fear it has not. In the purposes and in the principles that 
have been sustained, I have been the instrument selected to 
carry forward the affairs of this Government. I can rely upon 
you, and upon the people of the country; and with their sus- 
taining hand, I think that even I shall not fail in carrying the 
Ship of State through the storm." 

The reception of President Lincoln in New York City 
was a most imposing demonstration. Places of business 
were generally closed, and hundreds of thousands wore in 
the streets. On the next day, he was welcomed to the 
city by Mayor Wood, and replied as follows : 

''Mr. Mayor: It is with feelings of deep gratitude that i 
make my acknowledgments for the reception given me in the 
{ireat commercial city of New Yorlj. I cannot but remember 
that this is done by a people who do not, by a majority, agree 
w 'h me in political sentiment. It is the more grateful, because 
in this I see that, for the great principles of our Government, 
the people arc almost unanimous. In regard to the difficulties 
that confront us at this time, and of which your Honor haa 
thought fit to speak so becomingly and so justly, as 1 suppose, 
T can only suy that I agree in the sentiments expressed. In luy 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 79 

devotion to the Union, I hope I am behind no man in the nation 
In the wisdom with which to conduct the affairs tending to the 
preservation of the Union, I fear that too great confidence may 
have been reposed in me ; but I am sure I bring a heart devoted 
to the work. There is nothing that could ever bring me to wil 
liugly consent to the destruction of this Union, under which not 
only the great commercial city of New York, but the whole 
cointry, acquired its greatness, except it be the purpose for 
wl ich the Union itself was formed. I understand the ship to 
be made for the carrying and the preservation of the cargo, and 
80 long as the ship can be saved with the cargo, it should never 
be abandoned, unless it fails the possibility of its preservation, 
and shall cease to exist, except at the risk of throwing overboard 
both freight and passengers. So long, then, as it is possible that 
the prosperity and the liberties of the people be preserved in this 
Union, it shall be my purpose at all times to use all my powers 
to aid in its perpetuation. Again thanking you for the recep- 
tion given me, allow me to come to a close." 

On the next day, he left for Philadelphia. At Trenton, 
ne remained a few hours, and visited both Houses of tlie 
Legislature. On being received in the Senate, he thus 
addressed that body : 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of the State of 
New Jersey: I am very grateful to you for the honorable recep- 
tion of which I have been the object. 1 cannot but remember 
the place that New Jersey holds in our early history. In the 
early Revolutionary struggle, few of the States among the old 
'I'hirteen had more of the battle-Gelds- of the country wilhin its 
limits than old New Jersey. May I be pardoned, if, upon this 
occasion, I mention, that away back in my childhood, the earliest 
days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, snch 
a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, ' Weems' 
Life of Washington.' I remember all the accounts there given 
of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, 
and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the 
struggle here at 'I'renton, New Jersey. The crossing of liie 
river- — the contest with the 1 iessians— the great hardships en- 
dured at that time— all fix(d themselves on my memory more 
thi'n any single revolutioniuy event; anrl yon all know, for you 
have all been boys, how the-e early impressions last longer than 
any others. I recollect thii.king then, boy even though 1 was. 
that there must have been something morn than common th:it 
those men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that 
thing which they struggled for — that something even more than 
National Independence — that something that held out a great 
promise to all the people of the world to all time to come — I uin 



80 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the 
liberties of the people, shall be perpetuated in accordance with 
thi' original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall 
be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the 
hands of the Almighty, and of tliis. His almost chosen pcojile, 
for perpetuating the object of that great struggle. You give 
ma this reception, as I understand, without distinction of party. 
I learn that this body is composed of a majority of gentlemen 
who, in the exercise of their best judgment in the choice of a 
Chief Magistrate, did not think I was the man. I understand, 
nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the 
constitutional President of the United States — as citizens of the 
United States, to meet the man who, for the time being, is the 
representative man of the nation, united by a purpose to per- 
petuate the Union and liberties of the people. As such, I ac- 
cept this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe 
it was tendered to me as an individual." 

He then passed into the Chamber of the Assembly, and 
upon being introduced bj the Speaker, addressed that 
body as follows : 

''Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen: I have just enjoyed the honor 
of a reception by the other branch of this Legislature, and I re- 
turn to you and them my thanks for the reception which the 
people of New Jersey have given, through their chosen repre- 
sentatives, to me, as the representative, for the time being, of 
the majesty of the people of the United States. I appropriate 
to myself very little of the demonstrations of respect with which 
1 have been greeted. I think little should be given to any man, 
but that it should be a mauirestatiou of adherence to the Uniou 
and the Constitution. I understand myself to be received here 
by the representatives of the people of New Jersey, a majority 
of whom differ in opinion from those with whom I have acted. 
This manifestation is therefore to be regarded by me as expres- 
sing their devotion to the Union, the Constitution, and the lib- 
erties of the people. Ynu, Mr. Speaker, have well snid. that 
this is the time when the brav(,'st and wisest loi.ik with doubt and 
awe upon the aspect presented by our national affairs. Under 
these circumstances, you will readily see why I should not speak 
in detail of the course I shall deem it best to pursue. It is 
proper that I should avail myself of all the information and all 
the time at my command, in order that when the time arrives in 
•which I must speak officially, I shall be able to take the ground 
which I deem the best and safest, and from which I may have 
no occasion to swerve. I shall endeavor to take the ground I 
deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and 
the whole country. I take it, 1 hope, in good temper— certainly 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 81 

■with no malice towards any section. I shall do all that may be 
in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficul- 
ti(>s. The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than 
I am — none who would do more to preserve it. But it may be 
necessary to put the foot down firmly. And if I do my duty, 
and do right, you will sustain me, will you not? Received, as I 
am, by the members of u Legislature, the majority of whom do 
not ao^ree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may 
have their assistance in piloting the Ship of State through this 
voyage, surrounded by perils as it is ; for if it should suffer ship- 
wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voy- 
age." 

On his arrival in Philadelphia, he was received with 
great enthusiasm, and the Major greeted him with the 
following address : 

"Sir: In behalf of the Councils of Philadelphia and of its 
citizens, who, with common respect for their chief Magistrate- 
elect, have greeted your arrival, I tender you the hospitality of 
this city. I do this as the official representative of ninety thou- 
sand hearths, around which dwell six hundred thousand people, 
firm and ardent in their devotion to the Union ; and yet it may 
not be withheld, that there are but few of these firesides whose 
cheer is not straitened and darkened by the calamitous condition 
of our country. The great mass of this people are heartily weary 
and-sick of the selfish schemes and wily plots of mere politicians, 
who bear no more relation to true statesmanship than do the 
barnacles which incrust the ship to the master who stands by 
the helm. Your fellow-countrymen look to you in the earnest 
hope that true statesmanship and unalloyed patriotism may, 
with God's blessing, restore peace and prosperity to this dis- 
tracted land. It is to be regretted that your short stay pre- 
cludes that intercourse with the merchants, manufacturers, me- 
chanics, and other citizens of Philadelphia, which might aflbrd 
you a clear discernment of their great interests. And, sir, it 
could not be other than gratt-ful to yourself to have the oppor- 
tunity of communicating with the memories of the past, in those 
historic walls where were displayed the comprehensive intellects, 
and the liberal, disinterested virtues of our fathers, who framed 
the Constitution of the Federal States, over which you have 
be^n called upon to preside." 

Mr. Lincoln replied : 

" Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens of Philadelphia : I appear 
before you to make no lengthy speech but to thank you for this 
reception. The reception you have given me to-night is not to 
me, the man, the individual, but to the man who temporarily 



82 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

represents, or should represent, the majesty of the nation. It is 
true, as your worthy Mayor has said, that there is anxiety among 
the citizens of the United States at this time. I deem it a happy 
circumstance that this dissatisfied portion of our fellow-citizens 
do not point us to any thinp: in which they are being injured, or 
are about to be injured ; for which reason I have felt all the 
while justified in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety 
of the country at this time, is artificial. If there be those who 
differ with me upon this subject, they have not pointed out the 
substantial difficulty that exists. I do not mean to say that an 
artificial panic may not do considerable harm ; that it has done 
such I do not deny. The hope that has been expressed by jour 
Mayor, that I may be able to restore peace, harmony, and pros- 
perity to the country, is most worthy of liim ; and happy indeed 
will I be if I shall be able to verify and fulfil that hope. I 
promise you, in all sincerity, that I bring to the work a sincere 
heart. "Vv'liether I will bring a head equal to that heart, will be 
for future times to determine. It were useless for m,e,to speak 
of details of plans now ; I shall speak officially next Monday 
week, if ever. If I should not speak then, it were useless for 
me to do so now. If I do speak then, it is useless for me to do 
so now. When I do speak, I shall take such ground as I deem 
best calculated to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the 
country, and tend to the perpetuity of the nation, and the liberty 
of these States and these people. Your worthy Mayor has ex- 
pressed the wish, in which I join with him, that it were con- 
venient for me to remain with your city long enough to consult 
your merchants and manufacturers ; or, as it were, to listen to 
those breathings rising within the consecrated walls wherein the 
Constitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Declara- 
tion of Independence, were originally framed and adopted. I 
assure you and your Mayor, that I had hoped on this occasion, 
and upon all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing 
inconsistent with the teachings of these holy and most sacred 
walls. I never asked any thing that does not breathe from those 
■walls. All my political warfare has been in favor of the teach- 
ings that come forth from these sacred walls. May my right 
hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of 
my mouth, if ever I prove false to those teachings. Fellow-citi- 
zens, now allow me to bid you good-night." 

On the next morning, Mr. Lincoln visited the old " In- 
dependence Hall," for the purpose of raising the national 
flag over it. Here he was received "with a warm welcome, 
and made the following address : 

"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing 
here, in thia place, where were collected the wiedom, the patriot- 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 83 

Ism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions 
under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in 
my bands is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted 
cundition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the 
political sentiments I entertain h.ave been drawn, so far as I 
have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which origi- 
nated and were given to the world from this hall. I have never 
had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have oftea 
pondered over the dangers which were incurred by tlie men who 
assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of In- 
dependence. I have pondered over the toils that wore endured 
by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that inde- 
pendence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle 
or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It 
was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from 
the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this 
country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. It was 
that which gave promise that in due time the weight would b& 
lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment era- 
bodi':'!! ih ,be Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends^ 
can ihis country be saved upon this basis ? If it can, I will 
consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can 
help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it 
will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved with- 
out giving up that principle, I wa.s about to say I would rather 
bo assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my 
view of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed 
or war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such 
a course, and I may say, in advance, that there will be no blood- 
shed unless it be forced upon the government, and then it will 
be compelled to act in self-defence. 

" My friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech, and I did 
not expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here. 
I supposed it was merely to do something towards raising th« 
flag. I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. I have 
said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the 
pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." 

The party then proceeded to a platform erected in front 
of the State House, and Mr. Benton, of the Select Council, 
invited the President-elect to raise the flag. Mr. Lincoln 
responded in a brief speech, .^^tating his cheerful compli- 
ance with the request, and alluded to the original flag of 
thirteen stars, saying that the number had increased as 



84 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

time rolled on, and we became a bappy and a powerful 
people, each star adding to its prosperity. " The future," 
he added, " is in the hands of the people. It is on such an 
occasion as this that we can reason together, reaffirm our 
devotion to the country and the principles of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Let us make up our mind, that 
when we do put a new star upon our banner, it shall be a 
fixed one, never to be dimmed by the horrors of war, but 
brightened by the contentment and prosperity of peace. 
Let us go on to extend the area of our usefulness, add 
star upon star, until their light shall shine upon five hun- 
dred millions of a free and happy people." 

The President-elect then raised the flag to the top of 
the staff. 

At half-past 9 o'clock the party left for Harrisburg. 
Both Houses of the Legislature were visited by Mr. Lin- 
coln, and to an address of welcome he thus replied : 

" I appear before you only for a very few brief remarks, in 
response to what hns been said to me. I thank you most sin- 
cerely for this reception, and the generous words in which sup- 
port has been promised me upon this occasion. T thank your 
great commonwealth for tlie overwlielming support it recently 
gave, not to me personally, but the cause, which I think a just 
one, in the late election. Allusion has been made to the fact — 
the interesting fact, perhai)s we should say — that I, for the first 
time, appear at the Capital of the great Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania upon the birthday of the Father of his Country, 
in connection with that beloved anniversary connected with the 
history of this country. I have already gone through one ex- 
ceedingly interesting scene this morning in the ceremonii'S at 
Philadelphia. Under the high conduct of gentlemen there. I 
was, for the first time, allowed the privilege of standing in Old 
Independence ITall, to have a few words addressed to me there, 
and opening up to me an opportunity of expressing, with much 
regret, that I had not more time to express something of my 
own feelings, excited by the occasion, somewhat to harmonize 
and give shape to the feelings that had been really the feelings 
of my whole life. Besides 1 his, our friends there had provido-i a 
magnificent flag of the country. They had arranged it so that I 
was given the honor of raising it to the head of its staff. And 
when it went up I was pleased that it went to its place by the 
strength of my own feeble arm ; when, according to the arrange- 



LIFE iND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 85 

ment, the cord was pulled, and it flaunted gloriously to the wind 
without an accident, in the bright glowing sunshine of the morn- 
ing, I could not help hoping that tUers was in the entire success 
of that beautiful ceremony at least something of an omen of 
what is to come. Nor could I help feeling then, as I often have 
felt, in the whole of that proceeding, I was a very humble in- 
strument. I had not provided the flag ; I had not made the ar- 
rangements for elevating it to its place. I had applied but a 
very small portion of my feeble strength in raising it. In the 
whole transaction I was in the hands of the people who had ar- 
ranged it, and if I can have the same generous cooperation of 
the people of the nation, I think the flag of our country may yet 
be kept flaunting gloriously. I recur for a moment but to 
repeat some words uttered at the hotel in regard to what has 
been said about the milit^iry support which the General Gov- 
ernment may expect from the Commonwealth of Pennsylva- 
nia in a proper emergency. To guard against any possible 
mistake do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure that 
1 contemplate the possibility that a necessity may arise in 
this country for the use of the military arm. While 1 
am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your 
streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified 
at your promise here to use that force upon a proper 
emergency — while I make these acknowledgments, I desire 
to repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruction, 
that I do most sincerelj iiope that we shall have no use for 
them ; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and 
most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that, 
so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result 
shall in any wise be brought about, it shall be through no fault 
of mine. Allusion has also been made by one of your honored 
speakers to some remark recently made by myself at Pittsburg, 
in regard to what is supposed to be the especial interests of this 
great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I now wish only to say, 
in regard to that matter, that the few remarks which I uttered 
on that occasion were rather carefully worded. I took pains 
tliat they should be so. I have seen no occasion since to add to 
them or subtract from them. I leave them precisely as they 
stand, adding only now, that I am pleased to have an expres- 
sion from you, gentlemen of Pennsylvania, significant that they 
are satisfactory to you. And now, gentlemen of the General 
Assembly of the Conmonwealth of Pennsylvania, allow me to 
return you again my most sincere thanks." 

PLOT TO ASSASSI]N-ATE HIM— HOW IT WAS 
THWARTED. 

Arraugeinents bad been made for bis departure from 



86 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Harrisburg on the following morning, but the discovery 
of a plot to assassinate liira as he passed through Balti- 
more—a plot Iq which some of the principal residents of 
that city were interested, although their projects were to- 
be accomplished by means of paid emissaries — caused a 
change in the schedule, and on the evening of the day that 
he had been received by the Legislature, he left in a 
special train for Philadelphia, and from thence proceeded 
in the sleeping-car attached to the regular midnight train 
to "Washington, where he arrived at an early hour on the 
morning of the twenty-third. 

The sudden departure of Mr. Lincoln from the Penn- 
sylvania State Capital naturally astonished the people of 
the country ; and while the loyal citizens exulted in the 
fact that he was safe in Washington, the traitors and their 
sympathizers were greatly exasperited ai the failure of 
their nefarious designs, and pronouncing the movement 
an act of cowardice, solemnly declared that he should 
ne^er be inaugurated. 

IS WELCOMED TO WASHINGTON BY THE 
AUTHORITIES. 

A few days after his arrival he was waited upon by the 
Mayor and other municipal authorities, who welcomed 
him to the city, aad to whom he made the following 
reply : 

"Mr. Mayor: I thank yon, and through you the municipal 
authorities of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. 
And as it is the first time in my life since the present phase of 
politics has presented it-=elf in this country, tliat I have said 
s iy thing publicly within a region of country where the institu- 
tion of slavery exists, 1 will take this occasion to say that I 
think very much of the ill-fcMing that has existed, and still ex- 
i'^la, between the people in the sections from whence I came 
and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of 
one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to 
assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentleman present, that I 
have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly 



LIFi. AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 87 

feelings towards you as the people of ray own section. I havo 
not DOW, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any 
respect otherwise than as my own neighbors. I have not now 
any purpose to withhold from you any of the benefits of the 
Constitution, under any circumstances, that I would not feel 
myself constrahied to withhold from my neighbors ; and I hope, 
in a word, that, when we shall become better acquainted, and 1 
say it with great confidence, we shall like each other the more. ] 
thank you for the kindness of this reception." 

ADDRESSES THE REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION. 

On the following evening the Republican Association 
tendered him a delightful serenade, at the conclusion of 
which he made the following remarks to the assembled 
crowd : 

"My friends : I suppose that I may take this as a compli- 
•ment paid to me, and as such please accept my thanks for it. 
I have reached this city of Washington under circumstances 
considerably differing from those under which any other man 
has ever reached it. I am here for the purpose of taking an 
official position amongst the people, almost all of whom were 
politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me as I 
suppose. I propose no lengthy address to you. I only propose 
to say, as I did on yesterday, when your worthy Mayor and 
Board of Aldermen called upon me, that I thought much of the 
ill-feeling that has existed between you and the people of your 
surroundings and that people from amongst whom I came, has 
depended, and now depends, upon a misunderstanding. 

" I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I 
believe we all desire they may, I may have it in my power to re- 
move something of this misunderstanding; that I may be 
enabled to convince you, and the people of your section of the 
country, that we regard you as in all things our equals, and in 
all things entitled to the same respect and the same treatment 
that we claim for ourselves ; that we are in nowise disposod. if 
it were in our power, to oppress you, to dejirive you of any of 
your rights under the Constitution of the United States, or even 
narrowly to split hairs with you in regard to those rights, but 
are determined to give you, as far as lies in our hands, all your 
rights under the Constitution — not grudgingly, but fully and 
fairly. I hope that, by thus dealing with you, we will become 
better acquainted, and be better friends. And now, my friends, 
with these few remarks, and again returning my thanks for thia 
compliment, and expressing my desire to hear a little more of 
your good music, I bid you good-oight." 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



IS INAUGURATED PRESIDENT OP THE 
UNITED STATES. 

On the fourth of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln waa 
inaugurated the Sixteenth President of the United States, 
the ceremonies incident to the event being of the most 
imposing description. A large number of troops partici- 
pated in the procession, and every arrangement was made 
to frustrate any movement the Secessionists or theii 
friends might make to prevent the choice of a majority of 
the voters of tbe nation from taking the oath of office. 
From a platform erected in the usual position on the east 
front of the capitol, and in the presence of not less than 
ton thousand persons, Mr. Linooln delivered the following 
Inaugural Address : 

INAUGURAL ADDRESS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

'■'■Felloio-citizens of the United States : 

"In compliance with a custom as old as the Government it- 
self, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take, in 
your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the 
United States to be taken by the President, before he enters on 
the execution of his office. 

" I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss 
those matters of administration about which there is no special 
anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the 
people of the Southern States, that, by the accession of a Re- 
publican Administration, their property aud their peace and 
personal security are to be endangered. There has never been 
any reasonable cause tor such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and 
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the pub- 
lished speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote 
from one of those speeches, when I declare that ' I have no pur- 
pose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
Slavery in the States where it exists.' I believe I have no law- 
ful right to do so ; and I have no inclination to do so. Those 
who nominated and elected me, did so with the full knowledge 
that I had made this, and made many similar declarations, and 
had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in 
the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and 
to me, the clear aud emphatic resolution which I now read : 

" 'liesolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 

the States, and especially the ri^ht of each State to order and 
control its own domestic institutions according to its own judg- 
ment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which 
the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; and 
we denounce the Inwk'ss invasion by armed force of the soil of 
any State or Territory, uo matter under what pretext, as among 
the gravest of crimes.' 

" I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so I only 
press upon tlie public attention the most conclusive evidence of 
which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and se- 
curity of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now 
incoming Administration. 

" I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with 
the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully 
given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatevei" 
cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another. 

" There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugi- 
tives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly 
written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions : 

" 'No person held to service or labor in one State under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or 
labor, butshall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due.' 

" It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by 
those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive 
slaves ; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. 

"All members of Congress swear their support to the whole 
Constitution — to this provision as well as any other. To the 
proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms 
of this clause ' shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. 
Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they 
not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means 
of which to keep good that unanimous oath? 

" There is some difference of opinion whether this clause 
should be enforced by national or by State authority; but 
surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave 
is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him 
or to others by which authority it is done ; and should any one, 
in any case, be content that this oath shall go unkept on a 
merely un substantial controversy as to how it shall be kept ? 

"Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safe- 
guards of liberty known in the civilized and humane jurisprudence 
to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surren- 
dered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to 
provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Consti- 
tution, which guarantees that ' the citizens of each State shall be 
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in tho 
eeveral States?' 



90 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, 
and with uo jiurpose to construe the Coustitiition or laws by 
any hypercritical rules ; find while I do not choose now to 
specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I 
do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and 
private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which 
stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find 
impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. 

" It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a 
President under our national Constitution. During that period 
fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succes- 
sion administered the executive branch of the government. 
They have conducted it through many perils, and generally 
with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I 
now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional term 
of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties. 

"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, 
is now formidably attempted. 1 hold that in the contemplation 
of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of tliese 
States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in 
the fundamental law of all national governments-. It is safe 
to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its 
organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all 
the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the 
Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it ex- 
cept by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

"Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but 
an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can 
it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties 
who made it? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, 
so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 
Descending fmm these general principles, we find the proposi- 
tion that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, con- 
firmed by the history of the Union itself. 

" The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was 
formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was 
matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 
1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then 
thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be 
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation, in 1778; and, 
finally, in i787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and 
establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect 
Union. B'lt if the destruction of the Union by one or by a 
part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less 
than before, the Constitution having lost the vital element of 
perp.etuity. 

"It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mce 
motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and 
ordUiances to that effect are legally voitl ; and that acts of vio 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 91 

lence within any State or States against the authority of the 
United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to 
eirouni stances. 

" I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and 
the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my 
ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expresslj 
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully 
executed in all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be only 
a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, so far as 
is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, 
shall withhold the requisition, or, in some authoritative manner, 
direct the contrary. 

" I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the 
declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend 
and maintain itself. 

" In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and 
there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national au- 
thority. ■ 

" 'J'he power confided to me will he used to hold, occupy, and 
\-)ossess the property and places belonging to the government, and 
collect the duties and imposts ; but -beyond what may be neces- 
sary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force 
against or among the people anywhere. 

"Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and 
so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding 
the Federal oifices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious 
strangers among the people that object. While strict legal right 
may exist of the government to enforce the exercise of these 
offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so 
nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better to forego for 
the time the u^es of such offices. 

"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished to 
all parts of the Union. 

" So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that 
sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought 
and reflection. 

" 'i'he course here indicated will be followed, unless current 
events and experience shall show a modification or change to be 
proper; and in every case and exigency my best discretion will 
be exercised according to the circumstances actually existing, 
and with a view and hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and af- 
fections. 

" That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek 
to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext 
to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be sucli, I 
need address no word to them. 

"To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not 
Bpeak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- 



92 LIFE. AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memoriea, 
and its hopes? Would it not be well to ascertain why we do 
it? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while any portion of 
the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while 
the certain ills you fly to, are greater than all the real ones you 
fly from ? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ? 
All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional righta 
eau be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly writ« 
ten in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Hap- 
pily the human mind is so constituted, that no party can reach 
to the audacity of doing this. 

" Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly- 
written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by 
the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority 
of any clearly-written constitutional right, it might, in a moral 
point of view, justify revolution ; it certainly would, if such right 
were a vital one. But such is not our case. 

"All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so 
plainly assured to them by affirmations aud negations, guar- 
antees and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies 
never rise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be 
framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question 
which may occur in practical admiuistration. No foresight can 
anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, ex- 
press provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from 
labor be surrendered by national or by State authorities? The 
Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect 
slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly 
say. From questions of this class spring all our constitutional 
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities aud 
minorities. 

" If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the 
government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing 
the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If 
a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they 
make a precedent which in turn will ruiu and divide them, for a 
minority of their own will secede from them whenever a ma- 
jority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, 
why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, 
^rbitarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present 
Union now claim to secede from it? AH who cherish disunion 
Bcntimeuts are now being educated to the exact temper of doing 
this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the 
States to compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, 
and prevent renewed secession ? Plainly, the central idea of 
secession is the essence of auarchy. 

"A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and 
limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changvs 
of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereii^-n of 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 93 

a free people. Whoever reject it, does, of necessity, fly to an- 
archy or to despotism. Uiiauimity is impossible ; the rule of a 
majority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. 
So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism 
in some form is all that is left. 

" I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitu- 
tional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do 
I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the 
parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also 
entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel 
cases by all other departments of the government : and while it 
is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any 
given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that 
particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and 
never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne 
than could the evils of a different practice. 

"At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that, if the 
policy of the government upon the vital questions affecting the 
whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the 
Supreme Court, the iustant they are made, as in ordinary litiga- 
tion between parties in personal actions, the people will have 
ceased to be their own masters, unless having to that extent 
practically resigned their government into the hands of that 
eminent tribunal. 

" Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the 
judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide 
cases properly brought before them ; and it is no fault of theirs 
if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One 
section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be 
extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to 
be extended ; and this is the only substantial dispute ; and the 
fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the 
suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, 
perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral 
sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The 
great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in 
both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot 
be perfectly cured, and it would be worse, in both cases, aftei 
the separation of the sections, than before. The foreign slave- 
trade now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, 
without restriction, in one section ; while fugitive slaves, now 
only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by 
the other. 

'* Physically speaking, we cannot separate — we cannot remoTe 
our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable 
wall between them. A husband and w.fe may be divorced, and 
go out of the presence and beyond the reach of the other, but 
the different parts of our country cannot do that. They cannot 
but remain face to fa-ce ; and intercourse, either amicable or 
6 



94 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to 
make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory 
after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier 
than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be more faithfully 
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose 
you go to war, you cannot light always ; and when, after much 
loss on both sides, and no gain ou either, you cease fighting, the 
identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon 
you. 

" This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
iahabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing 
government, they can exercise their constitutional right of 
amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or over- 
throw it. 1 cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy 
and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Con- 
stitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amend- 
ment, I fully recognize the fnll authority of the people over 
the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes pre- 
Bcribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing 
circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity 
being aflorded the people to act upon it. 

" I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems 
preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the 
people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or 
reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for 
the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they 
would wish either to accept or refuse. I understand that a pro- 
posed amendment to the Constitution (which amendment, how- 
ever, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to the effect that 
the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic 
institutions of States, including that of persons held to service. 
To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my 
purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say 
that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional 
law, I have no objections to its being made express and irrevo- 
cable. 

" The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the peo- 
ple, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for 
the separation of the States. The people themselves, also, can 
dr this if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing 
to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government 
as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, 
to his successor. Why should there not be a patient coutidence 
in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or 
ecjual hope in the world ? In our present differences, is either 
party without faitli of being in the right ? If the Almighty 
liuler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your 
side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that 
justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN". 95 

the American people. By the frame of the government under 
which we live, this same pi'ople have wisely given their public 
servants but little power for mischief, and have, with equal wis- 
dom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at 
very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and 
vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or 
folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space 
of four years. 

" My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon 
this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking 
time. 

" If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to 
a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will 
be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object can be frus- 
trated by it. 

" Such of you as are now dissatisfled still have the old Con- 
stitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your 
own framing under it; while the new administration will have 
no immediate power, if it would, to change either. 

"If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the 
right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for pre- 
cipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a 
firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our 
present difiiculties. 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
.mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government 
will not assail you. 

"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to 
' preserve, protect, and defend it.' 

" I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
must not break our bonds of afiPection. 

" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle- 
field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all 
over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angela 
cf our nature." 

Chief Justice Taney then administered the oath of 
office, and President Lincoln left the Capitol for the 
White House, whore he held a public reception. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INTERVIEW WITH 
tIiE VIRGINIA COMMISSIONERS. 

On the 13th of April, ISGl, Messrs. Preston Stuart and 



96 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Randolph, a committee appointed by the Virginia Con- 
vention, were formally received by the President, and pre 
sented the resolutions under which they were appointed. 
In response, Mr. Lincoln made the following address : 

" Gentlemen : As a committee of the Virginia Convention, 
now in session, you present me a preamble and resolution iu 
these words : 

" ' Whereas, in the opinion of this Convention, the uncertainty 
which prevails iu the public mind as to the policy which the 
Federal Executive intends to pursue towards the seceded States 
is extremely injurious to the industrial and commercial iuterests 
of the country, tends to keep up an excitement which is un- 
favorable to the adjustment of the pending difficulties, and 
threatens a disturbance of the public peace ; therefore, 

" 'Besolved, That a committee of three delegates be appointed 
to wait on the President of the United States, present to him 
this preamble, and respectfully ask him to communicate to this 
Convention the policy which the Federal Executive intends to 
pursue in regard to the Confederate States.* 

" In answer I have to say, that having, at the beginning of 
my official term, expressed my intended policy as plainly as I 
was able, it is with deep regret and mortification I now learn there 
is great and injurious uncertainty in the public mind as to what 
that policy is, and what course I intend to pursue. Not having 
as yet seen occasion to change, it is now my purpose to pursue 
the course marked out in the inaugural address. I commend a 
careful consideration of the whole document as the best ex- 
pression I can give to my purposes. As I then and therein said, 
I now repeat, 'The power confided in me will be used to hold, 
occupy, and possess property and places belonging to the Gov- 
ernment, and to collect the duties and imports; but beyond 
what is necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no 
using of force against or among the people anywhere.' By the 
words ' property and places belonging to the Government,' I 
chiefly allude to the military posts and property which were in 
possession of the government when it came into my hands. 
But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of a purpose to 
drive the United States authority from these places, an unpro- 
voked assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold 
myself at liberty to repossess it, if I can, like places which had 
been seized before the Government was devolved upon mo, and 
in any event I shall, to the best of my ability, repel force by 
f^rce. In case it proves true that Fort Sumter has been 
assaulted, as is reported, I shall, perhaps, cause the Un:ted 
States mails to be withdrawn from all the States which claim to 
have seceded, believing that the commencement of actual war 
against the Government justifies and possibly demands it. I 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 97 

scarcely need to say that I consider the military posts and 
property situated within the States which claim to have seceded, 
as yet belonging to the Government of the United States as 
ffuch as they did before the supposed secession. Wliatever 
else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt to collect the 
duties and imposts by any armed invasion of any part of ihe 
country; not meaning by this, however, that I may not land a 
force deemed necessary to relieve a fort upon the border of the 
country. From the fact that I have quoted a part of the 
inaugural address, it must not be inferred that I repudiate any 
other part, the whole of which I reaffirm, except so far as what I 
DOW say of the mails may be regarded as a modification." 

Two days later the following proclamation was issued : 

THE FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS.---COWGRESS 
SUMMONED TO ASSEMBLE. 

" Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some 
time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof ob- 
structed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Florida, Mississippi, Ijouisiana, and Texas, by combinations too 
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial pro- 
ceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law ; now, 
therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United Stati-s, 
in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the 
laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the 
militia of the several States of the Unioii to the aggregate nuin- 
bor of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations and to 
cause the laws to be duly executed. 

" Tlie details for this object will be immediately communicated 
to the State authorities through the War Department. I ap- 
peal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort 
to maintain the honor, the integrity, and existence of our na- 
tional Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to 
■edress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it pro])(T 
.0 say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called 
"orth, will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property 
ivhich have been seized from tlie Union ; and in every event the 
utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects afore- 
said, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference 
with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of any 
part of the country; and I hereby command the persons coai- 
posing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peace- 
ably to their respective abodes, within twenty days from this 
date. 

" Deeming that the present condition of pubMc affairs presenta 
un extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power 
in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Oua- 



98 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM- LINCOLN. 

gress. The Senators and Representatives are, tbercfore. sum- 
moned to assemble at their respective chambers at twelve crclock, 
noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there 
to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the 
public safety and interest may seem to demand. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
" Dane at the City of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, ia 
the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
one, and of the independence of the United Stales the eighy- 
fifth. 

" By the President: "Abraham Lincoln. 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

Within three days after the appeal had been made to 
the patriots of the North, six hundred of their number 
had arrived in Washington, prepared for active duty and 
ready to sacrifice their lives in defence of the capital. The 
avenues to the city of Washington were guarded night 
and day, and cannon w'ere placed in position. The excite- 
ment w^as intense, but amid all the various apprehensions 
of the residents and the country, he, who really should 
have been more especially anxious and fearful, was always 
calm and collected. The murderous outbreak in Balti- 
more on the nineteenth only increased the excitement, but, 
as if indill'erent to the scenes which were in progress im- 
mediately around him, the President issued the following 
Proclamation, ordering a blockade of the Southern ports : 

k BLOCKADE OP SOUTHERN PORTS ORDERED. 

" Whereas, An insurrection against the Government of ths 
United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, 
and the laws of the United States for the collection of the 
revenue cannot be efficiently executed therein conformably to 
that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be 
uiiform throughout the United States. 

"And ivhereas, A combination cf persons, engaged in such 
insurrection, have threatened to grant pretended letters of 
marque to authorize the bearers tliereof to commit assaults on 
the lives, vessels, and property of good citizens of the country 
lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas, and iu waters 
of the United States. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 99 

"And lohereas, An Executive Proclamation has been already 
issued, requiring the persons engaged in tliese disorderly pro- 
ceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force for the 
purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in ex- 
traordinary session to deliberate and determine thereon. 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of ths 
United States, with a view to the same purpose before men- 
tioned, arii to the protection of the public peace, and the 
lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing theii 
lawful occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and de- 
liberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same 
shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on 
foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pur- 
suance of the laws of the United States and of the laws of nations 
in such cases provided. For this purpose a competent force will 
be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the 
ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate such block- 
ade, a vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave any of the 
said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander of one of 
the blockading vessels, who will indorse on her register the fact 
and date of such warning ; and if the same vessel shall agaiu 
attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be cap , 
in red and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceed- 
ings against her and her cargo as prize as may be deemed ad 
visable. 

"And I hereby proclaim and declare, that if any person, un- 
der the pretended authority of said States, or under any other 
pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the 
persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held 
amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention 
and punishment of piracy. 

" By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of Slate. 
"Washington, April I9lh, 18G1." 

THE PKESIDENT'S COMMUNICATION WITH 
THE MARYLAND AUTHOKITIES. 

On the twentieth of April, the President sent the follow- 
ing letter to the Governor of Maryland and also to the 
Mayor of Baltimore : 

" Washington, April 20th, 1861. 
" Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown : 

"Gentlemkn: — Your letter by Messrs. 'Bond, Dobbin, and 
Brune, is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for 
your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which 
you are placed. For the future, troops must be brought here, 
but I make no point of bringing them throvgh Baltimore. 



100 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LII COLX. 

"Without any military knowlcdfre myself, of course I must 
leave details to General Scott. He hastily said this morning, 
in presence of those gentlemen, ' March them around Baltimore, 
and not through it.' 

"I sincerely hope the general, on fuller reflection, will con- 
eider this practical and proper, and that you will not object to 
rt. By this a collision of the people of Baltimore with tho 
troops will be avoided, unless they go out of the way to sock it. 
I hope you will exert yonr influence to prevent this. Now and 
ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently with the 
maintenance of government 

" Your obedient servant, 

"A. Lincoln." 

And on the twenty- first, he sent a despatch to Mayor 
Brown, requesting him to proceed immediately to Wash- 
ington, a request that was obeyed, and upon arriving at 
the White House the invited guest was admitted to an 
interview with the Cabinet and General Scott. The Presi- 
dent informed the Mayor, and three of the citizens of Bal- 
timore who had accompanied him, that he recognized the 
good faith of the City and State authorities, but should 
insist upon a recognition of his own. 

lie admitted the excited state of feeling in Baltimore, 
and his desire and duty to av^oid the fatal consequences 
of a collision with the people. lie urged, on the other 
hand, the absolute, irresistible necessity of having a tran- 
sit through the State for such troops as might be neces- 
sary for the protection of the Federal capital. The pro- 
tection of Washington, he asseverated with great earnest- 
ness, was the sole object of concentrating troops there ; 
and he protested that none of the troops brought through 
Maryland were intended for any purpo.'-^s hostile to the 
State, or aggressive as against the Southern States. Being 
now unable to bring them up the Potomac in secLiiLy, the 
Government must cither bring them through Maryland or 
abandon the capital. 

He called on General Scott for his opinion, which the 
General gave at length, to the effect that troops might be 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 101 

brought through Maryland, without going through Balti- 
more, by either carrying them from Perryville to Annapo- 
lis, and thence by rail to Washington, or by bringing them 
to the Relay House on the Northern Central railroad, and 
marching them to the Helay House on the Washington 
railroad, and thence by rail to the capital. If the people 
would permit them to go by either of these routes uninter- 
ruptedly, the necessity of their passing through Baltimore 
would be avoided. If the people would not permit them 
a transit thus remote from the city, they must select their 
own best route, and, if need be, fight their way through 
Baltimore, a result which the General earnestly depre- 
cated. 

The President expressed his hearty concurrence in the 
desire to avoid a collision, and said that no more troops 
should be ordered through Baltimore if they were per- 
mitted to go uninterrupted by either of the other routes 
Buggested. In this disposition the Secretary of War ex- 
pressed his participation. 

About this same date a deputation of sympathizers 
visited the President, and demanded a cessation of hostili- 
ties until the convening of Congress, accompanying the 
demand with the assertion that seventy-five thousand 
Marylanders would contest the passage of troops over 
their soil. Mr. Lincoln, in refusing to accede to the truce, 
quietly replied that he presumed there was room enough 
on her soil to bury seventy-five thousand men. 

BLOCKADING OP VIRGINIA AND NORTH 
CAROLINA. 

On the twenty-seventh of April, the following additional 
proclamation, extending the blockade, was issued : 

"Whereas, For the reasons assigned in my proclamation of 
tne 19tli instant, a blockade of the ports of the States of South 
Caiolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Texas, was ordered to be established ; And luhereus, Since 



\ 



102 LIFE AKT) SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thai date public property of the United States has been seized, 
the collection of the revouue obstructed, and duly coraniissioaed 
ofiicers of the United States, wiiile engaged iu executing the 
orders of their superiors, have been arrested and held in custody 
a« prisoners, or have been impeded in the discharge of their 
official duties, without due legal process, by persons claiming to 
act under authority of the States of Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, an efficient blockade of the ports of these States will there- 
fore also be established. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
" Done at the City of Washington, this 27th day of April, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, 
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty- 
fifth. 

" By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

"William II. Seward, Secretary of State." 

Although the first call for troops had been responded to 
in the most gratifying manner by the outraged citizens of 
the free States, it was early ascertained that the number 
asked was totally insufficient for the existing exigencies, 
and on the third of May the following proclamation was 
issued : 

A CALL FOR ADDITIONAL TROOPS. 

" Washington, Friday, 31ai/ 3d, 18G1. 
" Whereas, Existing exigencies demand immediate and ade- 
quate measures for the protection of the national Constitution 
and the preservation of the national Union by the suppression ' 
of the insurrectionary combinations now existing in several 
States for opposing the laws of the Union and obstructing the 
execution thereof, to which end a military force, in addition to 
that called forth by my Proclamation of the fifteenth day of 
April, in the present year, appears to be indispensably ueces- 
eary, now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
thereof, and of the militia of the several States, when called into 
actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United 
States forty-two thousand and thirty-four volunteers, to serve 
for a period of three years, unless sooner discharged, and tc be 
mustered into service as infantry and cavalry. The proportions 
of each arm and the details of enrolment and organization will 
be made known through the Department cf War ; and I also 
direct that the regular army of the United States be increased 
by the addition of eight regiments of infantry, one regiment ol 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM 1 INCOLN. 108 

cavalry, and one regiment of artillery, making altogether a 
maximum aggregate increase of 22,714 officers and enlisted men, 
the details of which increase will also be made known through 
the Department of War; and I further direct tlie enlistment, 
for not less than one nor more than three years, of 18,000 sea- 
men, in addition to the present force, for the naval service of 
the United States. The details of the enlistment and organiza- 
tion will be made known through the Department of the Navy. 
The call for volunteers, hereby made, and the direction of the 
increase of the regular army, and for the enlistment of seamen 
hereby given, together with the plan of organization adopted for 
the volunteers and for the regular forces hereby authorized, will 
be submitted to Congress as soon as assembled. 

" In tJTe meantime, I earnestly invoke the co-operation of all 
good citizens in the measures hereby adopted for the effectual 
suppression of unlawful violence, for the in)partial enforcement 
of constitutional laws, and for the speediest possible restoration 
of peace and order, and with those of happiness and prosperity 
throughout our country. 

; "In testimony whereof, I liave hereunto set my hand, and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
"Done at the City of Washington, this third day of May, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, 
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty- 
fifth. 

" By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

" William H. Seu'ard, Secretary of State." 

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MARYLAND 
LEGISLATURE. 

On the following day, the President had an interview 
with a Committee of the Maryland Legislature, who ad- 
mitted the right of the Government to transport troops 
through Baltimore or Maryland, but expressed their belief 
that no immediate efforts would be made by the State au- 
thorities at secession or resistance, and asked that the 
State might be spared military occupation, or a mere re- 
vengeful chastisement for former transgressions. The 
Tresidcnt, in reply, promised to give their suggestions a 
respectful consideration, and stated that whatever meas- 
ures might be adopted, would be actuated entirely by the 
public interests and not by any spirit of revenge. 



104 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

A SPECIAL ORDER FOR FLORIDA. 

On the teuth of Ma}', 1861, the following proclamatioQ 
was promulgat-ed : 

" WHiereas, Au hisurrection exists in the State of Florida, by 
■which the lives, liberty, and property of loyal citizens of the 
United States are endangered. 

''And whereas, It is deemed proper that all needful measures 
ehould be taken for the protection of such citizens and all ofiBcers 
of the United States hi the discharge of their public duties :a 
the State aforesaid. 

" Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the Unit-^d States, do hereby direct the Com- 
mander of the forces of the United States on the Florida coast 
to permit no person to exeroise any office or authority upon the 
Islands of Key West, the Tortugas, and Santa Rosa, which 
may be inconsistent with the laws and Constitution of the 
United States, authorizing him at the same time, if he shall 
find it necessary, to suspend there the writ of habeas corpus, 
and to remove from the vicinity of the United States fortresses 
all dangerous or suspected persons. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
" Done at the City of Washington, this tenth day of May, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hiMidred and sixty-one, 
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty- 
fifth. 

"By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

" William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST MESSAGE TO 
CONGRESS. 

On the fourth of July, 1861, Congress acsembled, in 
pursuance to the call of the President, and received from 
the Executive the following Message : 

" Fkllow-Cittzens of the Senate and ITousr of Rkpreren- 
TA.TIVES: — Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, 
as authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not called 
to any ordinary subject of legislation. At the beginning of thp 
present Presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the 
Federal Government were found to be generally suspended 
within the several States of South Carolina, Gaorgia, Alabama. 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only those of the 
Post-OIEce Department. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 105 

" wTthiu these States all the Forts, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, 
Cnstom-Houses, and the like, including the movable and station- 
ary property in and about them, had been seized, and were held 
in open hostility to this Government, excepting only Forts 
Pickens, Taylor, and Jeflerson, on and near the Florida coast, 
and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. The 
forts thus seized had been put in improved condition, new ones 
had been built, and armed forces had been organized, and were 
organizing, all avowedly for the same hostile purpose. 

" The forts remaining in possession of the Federal Govern- 
ment in and near these States were either besieged or menaced 
by warlike preparations, and especially Fort Sumter was nearly 
surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries, with guns equal 
in quality to the best of its own, and outnumbering the latter as, 
perhaps, ten to one— a disproportionate share of the Federal 
muskets and rifles had somehow found their way into these 
States, and had been seized to be used against the Government. 
" Accumulations of the public revenue lying within them had 
been seized for the same object. The navy was scattered in 
distant seas, leaving but a very small part of it within the imme- 
diate reach of the Government. 

" Officers of the Federal army had resigned in great numbers, 
And of those resigning a large proportion had taken up arms 
against the Government. 

" Siraaltaneously, and in connection with all this, the purpose 
to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance 
with this purpose an ordinance had been adopted in each of these 
States, declaring the States respectively to be separated from 
the National Union. A formula for instituting a combined 
Government of these States had been promulgated, and this 
illegal organization, in the character of the ' Confederate States,' 
was already invoking recognition, aid, and intervention from 
foreign Powers, 

"Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an 
imperative duty upon the incoming Executive to prevent, if pos- 
sible, the consummation of such attempt to destroy the Federal 
Union, a choice of means to that end became indispensable. 
This choice was made and was declared in the Inaugural 
Address. 

" The policy chosen looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful 
measures before a resort to any stronger ones. It sought only 
to hold the public places and property not already wrested from 
the Government, and to collect the revenue, relying for the rest 
on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. It promised a contin- 
nance of the mails, at Government expense, to the very people 
who were resisting the Government, and it gave repeated pledges 
against any disturbances to any of the people, or any of their 
rights, of all that which a President might constitutionally and 
justifiably do in such a case ; every thing was forborne, without 
which it was believed possible to keep the Government on foot. 



106 MFE AXD SEEVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" On the 5th of March, the present incumbent's first full day 
in office, a letter fro% Major Anderson, commanding at Fort 
Sumter, written on tlie 28lh of February and received at the 
War Department on the 4th of March, was by that Department 
placed ill his hands. This letter expressed the professional 
opinion of the writer, that reinforcements could not be thrown 
into that fort within the time for its relief rendered necessary by 
the limited supply of provisions, and with a view of holding pos- 
session of the same, with a force less than 20,000 good and well- 
disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the 
officers of his command, and their memoranda on the subject 
were made inclosures of Major Anderson's letter. The whole 
was Immediately laid before Lieutenant-General Scott, who at 
once concurred with Major Anderson in his opinion. On re- 
flection, however, he took full time, consulting with other officers 
both of the army and navy, and at the end of four days came 
reluctantly but decidedly to the same conclusion as before. He 
also stated at the same time that no such sufficient force was 
then at the control of the Government, or could be raised and 
brought to the ground, within the time when the provisions in 
the fort would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view, 
this reduced the duty of the Administration in the case to thb 
mere matter of getting the garrison safely out of the fort. 

" It was believed, however, that to so abandon that position, 
under the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the 
necessity under which it was to be done would not be fully un- 
derstood ; that by many it would be construed as a part of a 
voluntary policy ; that at home it would discourage the friends 
of the Union, embolden its adversaries, aud go far to insure to 
the latter a recognition abroad ; that, in fact, it would be our 
national destruction consummated. This could not be allowed. 
Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be 
reached. Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last would 
be a clear indication of policy, and would better enable the 
country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a military 
necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the 
landing of the troops from the steamship Brooklyn into Fort 
Pickens. This order could not go by land, but must take the 
longer and slower route by sea. The first return news from the 
order was received just one week before the fall of Sumter. The 
E8W3 itself was that the officer commanding the Sabine, to which 
vessel the troops had been transferred from the Brooklyn, acting 
upon some quasi armistice of the late Administration, and of 
the exist( nee of wliich the present Administration, up to the 
tinre the order was despatched, had only too vague and uncertain 
rumors to fix attention, had refused to land the troops. To now 
reinforce Fort Pickens before a crisis would be reached at 
Fort Sumter was impossible, rendered so by the near exhaustion 
of provisions at the latter named foit. In precaution against 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 107 

Bucli a conjuncture the Government had a few days before com- 
menced preparing an expedition, as well adapted as might be, to 
relieve Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to be ulti- 
mately used or not, according to circumstances. The strongest 
anticipated case for using it was now presented, and it was re- 
Bolvcd to send it forward as had been intended. In this contin- 
gen( y it was also resolved to notify the Governor of South Caro- 
lina that he might expect an attempt would be made to pro- 
vision the fort, and that if the attempt should not be resisted, 
tLere would be no attempt to throw in men, arms, or ammu- 
nition, without further notice or in case of an attack upon the 
fort. This notice was accordingly given, whereupon the fort 
was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even awaiting 
the arrival of the provisioning expedition. 

" It is thus seen that the assault upon, and reduction of Fort 
Sumter, was, in no sense, a matter of self-defence on the part 
of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the fort 
could by no possibility commit aggression upon them ; they 
knew they were expressly notified that the giving of bread to the 
few brave and hungry men of the garrison was all which would 
on that occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by resisting 
so much, should provoke more. They knew that this Govern- 
ment desii'ed to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail 
them, but merely to maintain visible possession, and thus to pre- 
serve the Union from actual and immediate dissolution ; trust- 
ing, as hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot- 
box for final adjustment, and they assailed and reduced the fort, 
for precisely the reverse object, to drive out the visible authority 
of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution ; 
that this was their object the Executive well understood, having 
said to them in the Inaugural v^ddress, ' you can have no con- 
flict without being yourselves the aggressors.' He took paing 
not only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case 
so far from ingenious sophistry as that the world should not 
misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its sur- 
roundiug circumstances, that point was reached. Then and 
thereby tnc assailants of the Government began the conflict of 
arms,— w iDout a gun in sight or in expectancy to return theii 
fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that harbor years 
before, for their own pi-otection, and still ready to give that pro- 
tection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, 
they have forced upon the country the distinct issue, immediate 
dissolution or blood, and this issue embraces more than the fate 
' af these United States. It presents to the whole family of 
man the question whether a Constitutional Republic or De- 
mocracy, a Government of the people, by the same people, cau 
or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own 
domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented 
individuals, too few in numbers to control the Administratioa 



108 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

according to the orp;anic law in any case, can always, upon 
the pretences made in this case, or any other pretences 
or arbitrarily without any pretence, break up their Govern- 
ment, and thus practically put an end to free governmeLt 
upon the earth. It forces us to ask, ' Is there in all republics 
this inherent and fatal weakness ?' Must a Government of 
uccessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too 
weak to maintain its own existence ? So viewing the issue, no 
choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government, 
and so to resist the force employed for its destruction by force 
for its preservation. The call was made, and the response of 
the country was most gratifying, surpassing, in unanimity and 
s])irit, the most sanguine expectation. Yet none of the States, 
commonly called slave States, except Delaware, gave a regi- 
ment through the regular State organization. A few regiments 
have been organized within some others of those States by 
individual enterprise, and received into the Government service. 
Of course the seceded States, so called, and to which Texas 
had been joined about the time of the inauguration, gave no 
troops to the cause of the Union. The Border Slates, so called, 
were not uniform in their action, some of them being almost for 
the Union, while in others as in Virginia, North Carolina, 
1'ennessce, and Arkansas, the Union sentiment was nearly 
repressed and silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the 
most remarkable, perhaps the most important. A convention, 
elected by the people of that State to consider this very ques- 
tion of disrupting the Federal Union, was in session at the 
capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. 

" To tliiy body the people had chosen a large majority of pro- 
fessed Union men. Almost immediately after the fall of Sum- 
ter many members of that majority went over to the original 
disunion minority, and with them adopted an ordinance for with- 
drawing the State from the Union. Whether this change was 
wrought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter, or 
their great resentment at the Government's resistance to that 
assault, is not definitely known. Although they submitted the 
ordinance for ratification to a vote of the people, to be taken oa 
a day then somewhat more than a month distant, the Conven- 
tion and the Legislature, which was also in session at the same 
time and place, with leading men of the State, not membera 
of cither, immediately commenced acting as if the Slate was 
already out of the Union. They pushed military preparations 
vigorously forward all over the State. They seized the United 
8tates Armory at Harper's Ferry, and the Navy-Yard at Gos- 
port, near Norfolk. They received, perhaps invited into their 
State large bodies of troops, with their warlike appointments, 
from the so-called seceded States. 

"They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance 
with the so-called Confederate States, and sent members to their 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 109 

Congress at Montgomery, and finally they permitted the insnr- 
rectionary Government to be transferred to their eapitol at 
Richmond. The people of Virginia have thus allowed this 
giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders, and this 
Government has no choice left but to deal with it whore it finds 
it, and it has the less to regret as the loyal citizens have in due 
form claimed its protection. Those loyal citizens this Govern- 
ment is bound to recognize and protect as being in Virginia, 
lu the Border States, so called, in fact the middle States, there 
are those who favor a policy which they call armed neutrality, 
that is, an arming of those States to prevent the Union forces 
passing one way or the disunion forces the other over their soil. 
This would be disunion completed. Figuratively speaking, it 
would be the building of an impassable wall along the line of 
separation, and yet not quite an impassable one, for under the 
guise of neutrality it would tie the hands of the Union men, and 
freely pass supplies from among them to the insurrectionists, 
which it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke it would 
take all the trouble ofi" the hands of secession, except only 
what proceeds from the external blockade. It would do for the 
disunionists that which of all things they most desire, feed them 
well and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. 
It recognizes no fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to 
maintain the Union, and while very many who have favored it 
are doubtless loyal citizens, it is nevertheless very injurious ia 
effect. 

" Recurring to the action of the Government it may be stated 
that at first a call was made for 75,000 militia, and rapidly 
following this a proclamation was issued for closing the ports 
of the insurrectionary districts by proceedings in the nature 
of a blockade. So far all was believed to be strictly legal. 

"At this point the insurrectionists announced their purpose 
to enter upon the practice of privateering. 

" Other calls were made for volunteer?, to serve three years, un- 
less sooner discharged, and also for large additions to the regular 
army and navy. These measures, whether strictly legal or not, 
were ventured upon under what appeared to be a popular demand 
and a public necessity, trusting then, as now, that Congress 
would ratify them. 

" It is believed that nothing has been done beyond the con- 
stitutional competency of Congress. Soon after the first call 
for militia it was considered a duty to authorize the commanding 
general, in proper cases, according to his discretion, to suspend 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ; or, in other words, 
to arrest and detain, without resort to the ordinary processes 
and forms of law, such individuals as he might deem dangerous 
to the public safety. This authority has purposely been exer- 
cised but very sparingly. Nevertheless the legality and pro- 
priety of what has been done under it are questioned, and the 



110 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Attention of the country has been called to the proposition that 
one who is sworn to take care that tlie laws be faithfully exe- 
cuted, should not himself violate them. Of course some 
consideration was given to the questions of power and propriety 
oefore this matter was acted upon. The whole of the laws 
wirich were required to be faithfully executed were being resisted, 
and failing of execution in nearly one-third of the States. 
Most they be allowed to finally fail of execution, even had it 
been perfectly clear that by use of the means necessary to their 
execution, some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of 
the citizen's liberty that practically it relieves more of the 
guilty than the innocent, should to a very great extent be 
violated ? To state the question more directly, are all the lawa 
but one to go unexecuted, and the Government itself to go to 
pieces lest that one be violated ? Even in such a case would 
not the officfal oath be broken if the Government should be 
overthrown when it was believed that disregarding the single law 
would tend to preserve it. 

" But it was not believed that thi? question was presented. 
It was not believed that any law was violated. The provision 
of the Constitution, that the privilege of the writ of habeas 
corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebel- 
lion or invasion, the public safety may require it, is equivalent to 
a provision that such privilege may be suspended when, in cases 
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it. It 
was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the 
public safety does require the qualified suspension of the 
privilege of the writ, which was authorized to be made. Now, 
it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, is vested 
with this power. But the Constitution itself is silent as 
to which or who is to exercise the power ; and as the provision 
was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be 
believed that the framers of the instrument intended that in 
every case the danger should run its course until Congress could 
be called together, the very assembling of which might be pre- 
vented, as was intended in this case by the rebellion. No more 
extended argument is now afiForded, as an opinion at sume 
length will probably be presented by the Attorney-General. 
Whether there shall be any legislation on the subject, and if so 
what, is submitted entirely to the better judgment of Congress. 
The forbearance of this Government had been so extraordinary, 
and so long continued, as to lead some foreign nations to shape 
their action as if they supposed the early destruction of our 
national Union was probable. While this, on discovery, gave 
the Executive some concern, he is now happy to say that the 
sovereignty and rights of the United States are now everywhere 
practically respected by foreign Powers, and a general sympathy 
with the country is manifested throughout the woHd. 

" The reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, aud 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Ill 

the Navy, will pive the information in detail deemed necessary 
and convenient for your deliberation and action, while the Ex- 
ecutive and all the departments will stand ready to supply 
omissions or to communicate new facts considered important for 
you to know. 

" It is now recommended that you give the legal means for 
making this contest a short and decisive one ; that you place at 
the control of the Government for the work at least 400,000 
men and S400,000,000 ; that number of men is about one-tenth 
of those of proper ages within the regions where apparently all 
are willing to engage, and the sum is less than a twenty-third 
jiart of the money value owned by the men who seem ready to 
devote the whole. A debt of SGOO,000,000 now is a less sum 
per head than was the debt of our Revolution when we came 
out of that struggle, and the money value in the country bears 
even a greater proportion to what it was then than does the 
population. Surely each man has as strong a motive now to 
preserve our liberties as each had then to establish them. 

"A right result at this time will be worth more to the world 
than ten times the men and ten times the money. The evidence 
reaching us from the country leaves no doubt that the material 
for the work is abundant, and that it needs only the hand of 
legislation to give it bgal sanction, and the hand of the Execu- 
tive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One of the greatest 
perplexities of the (lovernment is to avoid receiving troops 
faster than it can provide for them ; in a word, the people will 
save their Government if the Government will do its part only 
indifferently well. It might seem at first thought to be of little 
difference whether the present movement at the South be called 
secession or rebellion. The movers, however, well understand 
the difference. At the beginning they knew that they could 
never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any 
name which implies violation of law ; they knew their people 
possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law 
and order, and as much pride in its reverence for the history and 
Government of their common country, as any other civilized 
and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advance- 
ment directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. 
Accordingly they commenced by an insidious debauching of the 
oublic mind ; they invented an ingenious sophism, which, if con- 
ceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the 
incident* of the complete destruction of the Union. The 
sophism itself is that any State of the Union may, consistently 
with the nation's Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peace 
fully, withdraw from the Union without the consent of the 
Union or of any other State. 

" The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised 
only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, 
is too thin to merit any notice with reljelliou. Thus augar 



112 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section 
for more than thirty years, and until at length they have bronghl 
many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the 
Government the day after some assemblage of men have enacted 
the farcical pretence of taking their State out of the Union, wlio 
could have been brought to no such thing the day before. This 
sophism derives much, perhaps the whole of its currency, from 
the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred su- 
premacy pertaining to a State, to each State of our Federal 
Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that 
reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of 
them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original 
ones passed into the Union before they cast off their British 
Colonial dependence, and the new ones came into the Union 
directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas, and 
even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated 
as a State. The new ones only took the designation of States 
on coming into the Union, wliile that name was first adopted 
for the old ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. 
Thereia^the United Colonies were declared to be free and inde- 
pendent States. But even then the object plainly was not to 
declare their independence of one another of the Union, but di- 
rectly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual ac- 
tion before, at the time, and afterward, abundantly show. The 
express plight of faith by each and all of the original thirteen 
States in the Articles of Confederation two years later that the 
Union shall be perpetuated, is most conclusive. Having never 
been States either in substance or in name outside of the Union, 
whence this magical omnipotence of State rights, asserting a 
claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself. Much is 
said about the sovereignty of tlie States, but the word even is 
not in the National Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of 
the State constitutions. What is sovereignty in the political 
sense of the word ? Would it be far wrong to define it a politi- 
cal community without a political superior? Tested by this, no 
one of our States, except Texas, was a sovereignty, and even 
Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union, by 
which act she acknowledged the Constitution of the United 
States ; and the laws and treaties of the United States, made in 
pursuance of States, have their status in the Union, made in 
pursuance of the Constitution, to be for her the supreme law. 
Tlie States have their status in the Union, and they have no 
other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so 
against law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves 
separately, procured their independence and their liberty by con- 
quest or purchase. The Union gave each of them whatever of 
independence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any 
of the States, and, in fact, it created them, as States. Origi- 
Dally, some dependent Colonies made the Union, and in turn tbo 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 113 

Union threw o£F their old dependence for them and made them 
States, snch as they are. Not one of them ever had a State 
constitution independent of the Union. Of course it is not for- 
gotten that all the new States formed their constitutions before 
they entered the Union; nevertheless, dependent upon, and pre- 
paratory to coming into the Union. Unquestionably, the States 
have the powers and rights reserved to them in and by the ^ia- 
tional Constitution. 

" But among these surely are not included all conceivaole 
powers, however mischievous or destructive, but at most such 
only as were known in the world at the time as gcvernmenta! 
powers, and certainly a power to destroy the Government itself 
had never been known as a governmental, as a merely adminis- 
trative power. This relative matter of national power and State 
rights as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality 
and locality. Whatever concerns the whole should be conferred 
to the whole General Government, while whatever concerns only 
the State should be left exclusively to the State. This is all 
there is of original principle about it. Whether the National 
Constitution, in defining boundaries between the two, has ap- 
plied the principle with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned 
We are all bound by that defining without question. What w 
now combated, is the position that secession is consistent with 
the Constitution, is lawful and peaceful. It is not contended 
that there is any express law for it, and nothing should ever be 
implied as law which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. 
The nation purchased with money the countries out of which 
several of those States were formed. Is it just that they shall 
go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid 
very large sums in the aggregate, I believe nearly a hundred 
millions, to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just 
that she shall now be ofi" without consent or without any return? 
The nation is now in debt for money applied to the benefit of 
these so-called seceding States, in common with the rest. Is it 
just, either that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining 
States pay the whole ? A part of the present national debt was 
contracted to pay the old debt of Texas. Is it just that she 
shall leave and pay no part of this herself? Again, if one State 
may secede so may another, and when all shall have seceded 
none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? 
Did we notify thein of this sage view of ours when we borrowed 
their money ? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the 
seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if 
others choose to go, or to extort terms upon which they will 
promise to remain. The seceders insist that our Constitution 
admits of secession. They have assumed to make a National 
Constitution of their own, in which, of necessity, they have either 
discardeo* or retained the right of secession, as they insist exists 
in ours. If they have discarded it, they thereby admit that oa 



114 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABliAHAM LINCOLN. 

principle it ought not lo exist in ours ; if they have retained il, 
by their own construction of ours that shows that to be consist- 
ent, they must secede from one another whenever they shall find 
it the easiest way of settling their debts, or effecting any other sel- 
fish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of disintegra- 
tion, and upon which no Government can possibly endure. If 
all the States save one should assert the power to drive that one 
out of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of seceder poli- 
ticians would at once deny the power, and denounce the act aa 
the greatest outrage upon State rights. But suppose that pre- 
cisely the same act, instead of being called driving the one out, 
should be called the seceding of the others from that one, it 
would be exactly what the seceders claim to do, unless, indeed, 
they made the point that the one, because it is a minority, may 
rightfully do what the others, because they are a majority, may 
not rightfully do. These politicians are subtle, and profound in 
the rights of minorities. They are not partial to that power 
•which made the Constitution, and speaks from the preamble, 
calling itself, ' We, the people.' It may be well questioned 
whether there is to-day a majority of the legally-qualified voters 
of any State, except, perhaps. South Carolina, in favor of dis- 
union. There is much reason to believe that the Union men are 
the majority in many, if not in every one of the so-called seceded 
States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of 
them. It is ventured to affirm this, even of Virginia and Ten- 
nessee, for the result of an election held in military camps, where 
the bayonets are all on one side of the question voted upon, can 
scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular sentiment. At 
such an election all that large class who are at once for the 
Union and against coercion, would be coerced to vote against 
the Union. It may be affirmed, without extravagance, that the 
free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and im- 
proved the condition of our whole people beyond any example 
in the world. Of this we now have a striking and impressive 
illustration. So large an army as the Government has now on 
foot was never before known, without a soldier in it but who has 
taken his place there of his own free choice. But more than 
this, there are many single regiments whose members, one and 
another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, 
professions, and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, ia 
known in the whole world, and there is scarcely one from which 
there could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, a Congress, 
and perhaps a Court, abundantly competent to administer the 
Government itself. Nor do I say this is not true also in the 
army of our late friends, now adversaries, in this contest. But 
it is 80 much better the reason why the Government which has 
conferred such benefits on both them and us should not be broken 
np. Whoever in any section proposes to abandon such a Gov- 
ernment, would do well t) consider in deference to what prin 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 115 

ciple it is that he does it. What better he is likely to get in 
its stead, whether the substitute will give, or be intended to 
{rive so much of good to the people. There are some fore- 
sliadowings on this subject. Our adversaries have adopted some 
declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one 
penned by Jeiferson, they omit the words, 'all men are created 
equal ' Why ? They have adopted a temporary National Con- 
Btitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good -old one 
Bigned by Washington, they omit ' We tlie people,' and substi- 
tute ' We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States 
Why' Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of 
men a'nd the authority of the people ? This is essentially a peo- 
ple's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for 
maintaining in the world that form and substance of Government 
whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men to lift 
artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laud- 
able pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
chance in the race of life, yielding to partial and temporary de- 
partures from necessity. This is the leading object of the (gov- 
ernment, for whose existence we contend. 

" I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand 
and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that while in this, the 
Government's hour of trial, large numbers of those in the army 
and navy who have been favored with the ofiBces, have resigned 
and proved false to the hand which pampered them, not one 
common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted hia 
flao- Great honor is due to those oERcers who remained true 
des'pite the example of their treacherous associates, but the 
greatest honor and the most important fact of all, is the unani- 
mous firmness of the common soldiers and common sailors. To 
the last man, so far as known, they have successfully resisted 
the traitorous efforts of those whose commands but an hour be- 
fore they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct 
of plain people. They understand without an argument that the 
destroying the Government which was made by Washington 
means no good to them. Our popular Government has often 
been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have 
settled : the successful establishing and the successful adminis- 
tering of it. One still remains. Its successful maintenance 
agaiirst a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now 
for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can tairly 
carry an election can also suppress a rebellion ; that ballots are 
the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when 
ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no 
successful appeal back to bullets ; that there can be no success- 
ful appeal except to ballots themselves at succeeding elections. 
Such will be a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what 
they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by a war, 
teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war. 

" Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men 



116 LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

as to what is to be the course of the government toward the 
Southern States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, 
the Executive deems it proper to say it will be his purpose, then, 
as ever, to be guided by the Constitution and the laws, and that 
he probably will have no different understanding of the powera 
and duties of the Federal Government relatively to the rights 
of the States and the people under the Constitution than ttiat 
expressed in the inaugural address. He desires to p:'eserve the 
government, that it may be administered for all, as it was ad- 
ministered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere 
have the right to claim this of their government, and the gov- 
ernment has no right to withhold or neglect it. It is not per- 
ceived that, in giving it, there is any coercion, any conquest, or 
any subjugation in any sense of these terms. 

" The Constitution provided, and all the States have accepted 
the provision, ' that the United States shall guarantee to every 
State in this Union a Republican form of government ;' but if a 
State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done so, it may 
also discard the Republican form of government. So that to 
prevent its going out is an indispensable means to the end of 
maintaining the guarantee mentioned ; and, when an end is law- 
ful and obligatory, the indispensable means to it are also lawful 
and obligatory. 

" It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the 
duty of employing the war power forced upon hira. In defence 
of the government he could but perform this duty or surrender 
the existence of the government. No compromise by public 
servants oould, in this case, be a cure ; not that compromises are 
not often proper, but that no popular government can long sur- 
vive a marked precedent, that those who carry an election can 
only save the government from immediate destruction by giving 
up the main point upon which the people gave the election. 
The people themselves and not their servants can safely reverse 
their own deliberate decisions. 

"As a private citizen, the Executive could not have consented 
that these institutions shall perish, much less could he in be- 
trayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people had 
confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, 
nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might 
follow. 

" In full view of his great responsibility, he has so far done what 
he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to your own 
judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your view3 
and your actions may so accord with his as to assure all faith- 
ful citizens who have been disturbed in their rights of a cer- 
tain and speedy restoration to them under the Constitution and 
laws ; and, having thus chosen our cause without guile, and 
with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go for- 
Vard without fear and with manly hearts. 

" Abraham Lincoijj." 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 117 

A DAY OP FASTING AND PRAYER AP- 
POINTED. 

Oa the twelfth of August, the following proclamation, 
«ippointing a day of fasting and prayer, was issued : 

^^Whereas, A joint committee of both Houses of Congress 
has waited on the President of the United States, and requested 
him to ' recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fast- 
ing, to be observed by the people of the United States with reli- 
gious solemnities, and the offering of fervent supplications to 
Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His 
blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace.' 

"■And whereas, It is fit and becoming in all people, at all 
times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of 
God ; to bow in humble submission to his chastisements ; to 
confess and deplore their sins and transgressions, in the full con- 
viction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and 
to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their 
past ofi'enoes, and for a blessing upon their present and prospec 
tive action. 

"And whereas, When our own beloved country, once, by the 
blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted 
with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize 
the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and, in sorrowful re- 
membrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation, and as in- 
dividuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His 
mercy — to pray that we may be spared further punishment, 
though most justly deserved ; that our arms may be blessed and 
made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order, and peace 
throughout the wide extent of our country ; and that the inesti- 
mable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under Hia 
guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, 
may be restored in all its original excellence ; 

"Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a 
day of humiliation, prayer and fasting for all the people of the 
nation. And I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and 
especially to all ministers and teachers of religion, of all d(!Uomi- 
natioufl, and to all heads of families, to observe and keep that 
day, according to their several creeds and modes of worship, in 
all humility, and with all religious solemnity, to the end that the 
united prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace, 
and bring down plentiful blessings upon our country. 
, *' In testimony whei-eof, I have hereunto set my hand, atid 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed, this 
[l. s.] 12th day of August, a. d. 1861, and of the Independ- 
ence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth. 
'By the President: "Abraham Lincoln. 

" William H. Sewaed, Secretary of State." 



118 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH THE HB- 
BELLIOUS STATES PROHIBITED. 

Four days later he also promulgated the following : 

"Wliereas, Oc the 15th day of April, the President of the 
United States, in view of an insurrection atjainst the laws, Con- 
fititutioo, and Government of the United States, which had 
broken out within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and in pursu- 
ance of the provisions of the act entitled an act to provide for 
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup- 
press insurrections, and repel invasions, and to repeal the act 
now in force for that purpose, approved February 28th, 1795, 
did call forth the militia to suppress said insurrection and cause 
the laws of the Union to be duly executed — and the insurgents 
have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President ; 
and whereas, such insurrection has since broken out and yet 
exists within the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
and Arkansas ; and whereas, the insurgents in all the said 
States claim to act under authority thereof, and such claim is 
not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the func- 
tions of government in such State or States, or in the part or 
parts thereof in which such combinations exist, nor has such 
insurrection been suppressed by said States, 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, in pursuance of the act of Congress approved 
July 13th, 1861, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the 
said States of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, except the 
inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of 
the Alleghany Mountains, and of such other parts of that Stata 
and the other States hereinbefore named as may maintain a loyal 
adhesion to the Union and the Constitution, or may be, from 
time to time occupied and controlled by the forces of the 
United States engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents, as 
are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that 
all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabi- 
tants thereof, with the exception aforesaid, and the citizens of 
other States and other parts of the United States, is unlawful 
and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or 
has been suppressed ; that all goods and chattels, wares and 
merchandize, coming from any of the said States, with the ex- 
ceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without 
the special license and permission of the President, through tho 
Secretary of the Treasury, or proceeding to any of the said 
States, with the exception aforesaid, by land or water, together 
with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same or conveying per- 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABKAHAM LI^COLX. 119 

sous to and from the said States, with the said exceptions, will 
be forfeited to the United States; and that, from and after fif- 
teen days from the issuing of this proclamation, all ships and 
vessels belonging, in whole or in part, to any citizen or inhabi- 
tant of any of the said States, with the said exceptions, found at 
sea in any part of the United States, will be forfeited to the 
United States ; and I hereby enjoin upon all district attorneys, 
marshals, and officers of the revenue of the military and naval 
forces of the United States to be vigilant in the execution of the 
said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and forfeitures 
imposed or declared by it, leaving any party who may think him- 
self aggrieved thereby to his application to the Secretary of the 
Treasury for the remission of any penalty or forfeiture, which 
the said Secretary is authorized by law to grant if, in his judg- 
ment, the special circumstances of any case shall require such 
a remission. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my haad, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed, 

" Done in the city of Washington, this, the 16th day of Au- 
gust, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of 
America the eighty-sixth. 

" By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

" William H. Seward." 



HE MODIFIES AN ORDER OP GENERAL FRE- 
MONT. 
Iq the latter part of August, General Fremont declared 
martial law throughout the State of Missouri, and at the 
same time ordered that the property of all persons within 
the limits of his Department who had been disloyal, should 
be confiscated, and their slaves declared free men, but the 
President promptly issued an order modifying that clause 
of the proclamation in relation to the confiscation of prop- 
erty and the liberation of slaves, so as to conform with, 
and not transcend the provisions on the same subject con- 
tained in the Act of Congress approved August Gth, 1861. 

HIS SECOND MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 

On the 3d of December, 18G1, Congress having convened 
on the preceding day, the President sent in his Message, a 
document which was eminently conservative and whicl 



120 LirE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

was received with great satisfaction by the loyal men of 
the country. No general scheme of emancipation was 
urged, and in alluding to the policy to be adopted to en- 
sure the suppression of the rebellion, he stated that he 
had been anxious and careful that the inevitable conflict 
necessary for that purpose should not degenerate into a 
violent and remorseless revolutionary struggle. " I have, 
therefore," he continued, " in every case, thought it proper 
to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the pri- 
mary object of the contest on our part, leaving all ques- 
tions which are not of vital military importance to the 
more deliberate action of the Legislature." 

There can never be any difficulty in ascertaining Mr. 
Lincoln's views upon the exciting and absorbing topics of 
the day. His messages, proclamations, and correspond- 
ence all evince the same spirit of independence and deter- 
mination, while his language is so explicit that there can 
be no doubt of his meaning. In his letter to Governor 
Magoffin, of Kentucky, declining to remove the Union 
troops from that State, and rebuking that official for his 
indifference to the cause of his country — in the one to Gen- 
eral Fremont, in reference to the modification of his pro- 
clamation, and in fact in all his correspondence on matters 
connected with political movements, his views have been 
of such a force and exalted character that they could not 
fail to receive the hearty approbation of his fellow-country- 
men. 

On the nineteenth of February, 1862, he issued a pro- 
clamation requesting the people of the United States to 
assemble on the twenty-second of the same month and 
celebrate the day by reading the Farewell Address of the 
" Father of his Country." 

THE PEESIDENT'S MESSAGE RECOMMENDING 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 
On the sixth of March, 1862. the President sent into 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 121 

Congress the following Message, recommending the adop- 
tion of measures looking to " gradual, aad not sudden" 
emancipation : 

''Fellow- Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

" I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your 
honorable bodies which shall be substantially as follows : 

" 'Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with 
any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, 
giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such Stata 
in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public 
and private, produced by such change of system.' 

" If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet 
the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end ; but 
if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance 
that the States and people immediately interested should be at 
once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to 
consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Govern- 
ment would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of 
the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of 
the existing insurrection entertain the hope that the Govern- 
ment will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence 
of some part of the disaff'ected region, and that all the slave 
States north of such parts will then say : ' The Union for which 
we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with 
thesouthein section.' To dejjrive them of this hope, substan- 
tially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation com- 
pletely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. 

" The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would 
very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation, but that while the 
oifer is equally made to all, the more northern shall, by such 
initiation, make it certain to the more southern that in no 
event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed con- 
federacy. I say 'initiation,' because, in my judgment, gradual 
and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere 
financial or pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the 
census tables and the treasury report before him, can readily 
see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this 
war would purchase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves in any 
named State. 

" Such a proposition on the part of the general Government 
sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfei'e 
with slavery within State limits, referring as it does the absolute 
control of the subject in each case to the State and its people 
immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly 
free choice with them. 

' In 'he annual message last December I thought fit to say ' 



122 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

•The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable 
means must be employed.' I said this not hastily, but deliber- 
ately. War has been, and continues to be an indispensabla 
means to this end. A practical re-ackuowlcdgment of the 
•:!atiional authority would render the war unnecessary, and it 
would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war 
must also continue, and it is impossible to foresee all the inci- 
dents which may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. 
Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously promis? 
great efiBciency toward ending the struggle, must and will come. 
The proposition now made is an ofTer only, and I hope it maj 
be esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary considera 
lion tendered would not be of more value to the States and 
private persons concerned than are the institution and property 
in it, in the present aspect of affairs. While it is true that tho 
adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, 
and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in 
the hope that it would soon lead to important results. In full 
view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, 
I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the 
Bubiect. "Abraham Lincoln." 

This important recommendation was received with the 
most unbounded satisfaction in all sections of the great 
North and West, and the leading loyal journals vied with 
each other in the laudatory notices bestowed upon its illus- 
trious author. The English press favorable to the preser- 
vation of the Union, were equally complimentary, and 
pronounced it a fair, moderate, and magnanimous policy, 
greatly in contrast with that adopted by the rebel authori- 
ties. 

ASSUMES ACTIVE COMMAND OP THE ARMY 
AND NAVY. 
On the eleventh of March, 1862, the President gave an 
additional evidence of his independence and fearlessness 
by promulgating, for the information of the service and 
the country, three important military orders, assuming tho 
active duties of Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 
Navy of the United States ; ordering a general and com- 
bined movement of the land and naval forces ; requiring 
the Army of the Potomac to be organized into Corps ; con- 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 128 

fining General McClellan to the command of the Depart- 
ment of the Potomac ; and organizing the Department of 
the Mississippi and the Mountain Department. 

THANKSGIVING FOR SIGNAL VICTORIES. 

The triumphant success of our arms in the South and 
West during the early spring months of that year of con- 
flict and carnage, prompted Mr. Lincoln to call upon the 
patriots of the nation to offer up their thanks to the Al- 
mighty for his manifold kindnesses, and for the inestimable 
blessings he bad showered upon them in their hour of 
need. The recommendation was scrupulously observed, 
and from almost every place of public worship arose upon 
the following Sabbath songs of thanksgiving, mingled with 
invocations for a continuance of the Divine guidance. 

SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN THE DISTRICT OP 
COLUMBIA. 

On the sixteenth of April, 1862, Mr. Lincoln consum- 
mated an act which had for many years been one of his 
most favorite projects, by sending into Congress the fol- 
lowing Message : 

^^ Fellow- Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

" The act entitled 'An act for the release of certain persona 
held to service or labor in the District of Columbia,' has this 
day been approved and signed. 

" I have never doubted the constitutional authority of Con- 
gress to abolish slavery in this District, and I have ever desired 
to see the national capital freed from the institution in some 
satisfactory way. Hence there has never been in my mind any 
question upon the subject except the one of expediency, arising 
in view of all the circumstances. If there be matters witliin 
and about this act, which might have taken a course or shape 
more satisfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to specify 
them. I am gratified that the two principles of compensation 
and colonization are both recognized and practically applied in 
the act. 

"In the matter of compensation, it is provided that claims 
may be presented within ninety days from the passage of the 
act, but uot thereafter, and there is no saving for minors, /emmes 



124 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

coverts, insane, or absent persons. I presume this is an omis- 
bIou by mere oversight, and I recommend that it be supplied by 
an amendatory or supplemental act. "Abraham Lincoln." 

RE-OPENING OF SOUTHERN PORTS. 

Duviag the month of Maj, 18G2, two important proclama- 
tions were published. — one on the twelfth, declaring the ports 
of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans open for trade ; 
and the second, a week later, repudiating an emancipation 
order of Major-General Hunter. This last document is 
too important a part of the history of the rebellion to be 
omitted here, and we therefore give it in full. It is as 
follows : 

" Whereas, There appears in the public prints what purports 
to be a proclamation of Major-Geueral Hunter, in the words and 
figures following, to wit : 

" ' Head-quarters, Department of the South, 
" ' Hilton Head, S. C, May Uh, 1862. 
"'General Orders No. 11. 

" ' The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolinii, 
comprising the Military Department of the South, having delib- 
erately declared themselves uo longer under the protection of 
the United States of America, and having taken up arms against 
the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare 
them under martial law. This was accoi-diugly done on the 
twenty-fifth day of April, 18G'2. Slavery and martial law in a 
free country are altogether incompatible. The- persons in these 
three States, Georgia, Florida, and Soulli Carolina, heretofore 
held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free. 

"'David Hunter, Major-General Commanding. 

'"Official: 

" ' Ed. W. Smith, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.' 

'^And wherea,s, Tlie same is producing some excitement and 
misunderstanding, 

"■'Dxerefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, proclaim and declare that the government of the United 
States had no knowledge or belief of an intention, ou the part of 
General Hunter, to issue such a proclamation, nor has it yet any 
authentic information that the document is genuine ; and further, 
that neither General Hunter nor any other commander or persoii 
Las been authorized by the government of the United States to 
make proclamation declaring the slaves of any State free, and 
that the supposed proclamation now in question, whether 
genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects euch 
dcclaruViou, 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 125 

" I further make known, that whether it be competent for me 
as commander-in-chief of the army and navy to declare tlia 
slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time, or 
in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the 
maintenance of the government to exercise such supposed power, 
are questions which, under my respousibility, I reserve to myself, 
and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of 
commanders in the field. These are totally different questions 
from those of police regulations in armies and camps. 

" On the sixth day of March last, by a special message, I 
recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution, to 
be substantially as follows : 

" 'Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with 
any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, 
giving to such State in its discretion to compensate for the in- 
conveniences, public and private, produced by such change of 
system.' 

"The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted 
by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands 
an authentic, definite and solemn proposal of the nation to the 
States and people most immediately interested in the subject 
matter. To the people of these States I now earnestly appeal, 
1 do not argue ; I beseech you to make the arguments for your- 
selves. You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the 
times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, 
ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. 
This proposal makes common cause for a common object, cast- 
ing no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The 
change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of 
Heaven, not rending or wrecking any thing. Will you not em- 
brace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all 
past time, as in the Providence of God it is now your high 
privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that 
you have neglected it. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be afBxed. 

" Done at the City of Washington, this nineteenth day of 
May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
Bixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the 
eighty-sixth. 

" By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

" Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of Stated 

THE PRESIDENT'S CONFERENCE WITH THE 
LOYAL GOVERNORS— HIS INTERVIEW WITH 
THE BORDER CONGRESSMEN. 

Ou the first of July, 1862, the President, iu ao- 
cordance with the Act for the collection of direct taxes in 



126 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the insurrectionary districts, issued a proclamation de- 
claring in what States and in what counties of Virginia 
insurrection existed ; and on the same day addressed a 
letter to the Governors of the loyal States, in reply to one 
received from them, asking that for the purpose of follow- 
ing up recent signal successes by measures which would 
ensure the speedy restoration of the Union, a sufficient 
number of men from each State to fill up existing regi 
ments and to form new organizations, might be called for. 
Mr. Lincoln fully concurred in the views of the Executives 
and expressed his intention to call for an additional force 
of three hundred thousand men. 

On the twelfth of July, an interesting interview took 
place at the White House, the Senators and Representa- 
tives of the Border States having assembled there by in- 
vitation of the President, who wished to converse with 
them upon the important topic of gradual emancipation. 
During an extended conversation, he expressed his views 
clearly and explicitly, requesting their calm consideration 
of the subject, and charging them to commend his sug- 
gestions to their constituents, and to prevent all doubt of 
his meaning, read to tiiem the following appeal : 

^'Gentlemen: After the adjournment of Congress, now near, I 
shall have no opportunity of seeing you for several months. 
Believing that you of the border States hold more power for 
good than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty, 
which I cannot justifiably waive, to make this appeal to you. 

" I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that, 
in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual 
emancipation message of. last March, the war would now be sul)- 
stantially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of 
fche most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the States 
which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that, in no 
event, will the States you represent ever join their proposed 
confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest. 
But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately have you 
with them so long as you show a determination to perpetuate the 
institutions within your own States. Beat them at elections, as 
you have overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still 
claim you as their own. You and 1 know what tlie lever of their 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 127 

power is. Break that lever before their faces, and they can 
shake you no more forever. 

" Most of you have treated me with kindness and consi Jeratiouj 
and I trust you will not now think I improperly touch what ia 
exclusively your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, 
I ask, ' Can you, for your States, do better than to take th« 
course I urge?' Discarding pundi'lio and maxims adapted to 
more manageable times, and looking only to the unprecedeutedly 
Btern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible event ? 
You prefer that the constitutional relation of the States to the 
nation shall be practically restored without disturbance of the 
institution ; and, if this were done, my whole duty, in this re- 
spect, under the Constitution and my oath of office, would be 
performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish 
it by war. The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. If the 
war continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner at- 
tained, the institution in your States will be extinguished by 
mere friction and abrasion — by the mere incidents of the wa,r. 
It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. 
Much of its value is gone already. How much better for you 
and for your people to take the step which at once shortens the 
war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure 
to be wholly lost in any other event I How much better to thus 
save the money which else we sink forever in the war ! How 
much better to do it while we can, lest the war, ere long, rea- 
der us pecuniarily unable to do it ! How much better for you, aa 
seller, and the nation, as buyer, to sell out and buy out that without 
which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing 
to be sold and the price of it in cutting one another's throats. 
'' I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at 
once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for 
colonization can be obtained cheaply and in abundance ; and, 
when numbers shall be large enough to be company and en- 
couragement for one another, the freed people will not be so 
reluctant to go. 

" I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one which 
threatens division among those who, united, are none too strong. 
An instance of it is known to you. General Hunter is an honest 
man. He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I valued him 
none the less for his agreeing with me in the general wish that 
ail men everywhere could be freed. He proclaimed all men free 
within certain States, and I repudiated the proclamation. He 
expected more good and less harm from the measure than I could 
believe would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfac- 
tion, if not offence, to many whose support the country cannot 
afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in 
this direction is still upon me, and is increasing. By conceding 
what I now ask, you can relieve me, and, much more, can relievaf 
me country in this important point. 



IlS life and SEP.YICE5 OF AEKAHAM LI>-COL?r 

" Upon these considerations I have again begged your attei 
tion to the message of March last. Before leaving the capital 
coiisider and discnss it among yourselves. Yoa are patriots aac 
Etate^men, and, as tocb, I pray you consider this proposition, 
and. at the least, commend it to the consideration of yoar Statea 
aDd j>eople. As you would perpetuate popular government for 
the best people in the world. I beseech you that you do in nowise 
omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demandii.g 
the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy relief. 
Onje relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its 
beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its 
happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand 
To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assme 
that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link your own 
names therewith forever." 

INSTBTTCTIOKS TO MILITARY AND NAVAL 

COMI-IANDEES. 

On the twentv-second of Julj, he issued the following 
order : 

" Was. Depaetkest, "VTashtsgtox, Juii/ 22d, 1862. 

"First. Ordered that military commanders within the Statea 
of Virginia, North Carolina. Georgia. Florida, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, in an ordinary manner 
seize and use any property, real or personal, which may be 
necessarv or convenient for their several commands, for sup- 
plies, or for other military purposes ; and that while property 
nay be destroyed for proper military objects, none shall be de- 
Etroyed in wantonness or malice. 

'' Second. That military and naval commandere shall employ 
as laborers, within and from said States, so many persons of 
African descent as can be advantageously used for military or 
naval purposes, giving them reasonable wages for their labor. 

•• Third. That, as to both pro{>erty, and persons of African 
descent, accounts shall be kept sufficiently aj?curate and in de- 
tail to show quantities and amounts, and from whom both prop- 
erty and such pereons shall have come, as a basis upon which 
compensation can be made in proper cases ; and the several de- 
partments of this government shall attend to and perform their 
appropriate parts toward the execution of the.ce orders. 

" By order of the President. 

' Edwi.v M. Sta.vtox, 

"Secretary of MVar." 

And on the twenty-fifth of July, by proclamation, be 
warned all persons to cease participating in aiding, counte- 
BAncing, or abetting the rebellion, and to return to 'heir 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 129 

allegiance under penalty of the forfeitures and seizures 
provided by an Act " to suppress insurrection, to punish 
treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property 
of rebels, and for other purposes,"' approved on the seven- 
teenth of July, 1S62. 

A DEAFT FOE THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 
MEN ORDERED. 

On the fourth of August, 1862, the following order for 
a draft was issued : 

'• Ordered : First, that a draft of three hundred thousand mili- 
tia be immediately called into the service of the United States, 
to serve for nine months, unless sooner di;icharged. The Secre- 
tary of War will assign the quotas to the States and establish 
regulations for the draft. 

" Second, that if any State shall not. by the fifteenth of 
August, furnish its quota of the additional three hundred thou- 
saud volunteers authorized by law. the deficiency of volunteerg 
in that State will also be made up by a special draft from the 
militia. The Secretary of War will establish regulations foi 
this purpose. 

" Third, regulations will be prepared by the War Department 
and presented to the President, with the object of securing the 
promotion of officers of the army and volunteers for meritorious 
and distinguished services, and cf proventiug the nomination and 
appointment in the military service of incompetent or uu- 
worthy officers. 

" The regulations will also provide for ridding the service of 
Buch incompetent persons as now hold commissions. 

"By order of the President. 

" Edwix M. Staxtox, 

'■Secretari/ of War.' 

THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS AT A WAR 

MEETING. 

On the sixth of August, 1862, a large and enthusi- 
ajrtic Union meeting was held in Washington, at which a 
series of patriotic resolutions was adopted, and numerous 
eloquent speeches delivered, among others the following 
characteristic one by the Chief Magistrate of the nation : 

'■ Fell etc -citize-ns: I believe there is no precedent for my ap- 
pearing before you on this occasion, [appUiuse,] but it is alao 



130 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LI.NCOLX. 

tiue that there is no precedent for your being here yourselves, 
[appUxuso and laughter,] and I ofiTer, in justification of myself 
and of you, that, upon examination, 1 have found nothing in the 
Constitution against it. [Renewed applause.] I, however, have 
an impression that there are younger gentlemen who will enter- 
tain you better, [voices — 'No, no 1 none can do better than 
yourself. Go on !'] and better address your understanding than 
1 will or could, and therefo e I propose but to detain you a mo- 
ment longer. [Cries — 'Co vi I Tar and feather the rebels!'] 

*' I am very little inclined on any occasion to say any thing 
unless 1 hope to produce some good by it. [A voice — ' You do 
that; go on.'] The only thing I think of just now not likely to 
be better said by some one else is a matter in which we have 
heard some other persons blamed for what I did myself. 
[Voices — ' What is it ?'] There has been a very wide-spread at- 
tempt to have a quarrel between General McCiellau and the 
Secretary of War. Now, I occupy a position that enables me 
to observe, at leapt these two gentlemen are not nearly so deep 
in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends. [Cries of 
'Good.'] General McClellan's attitude is such that, in the verv 
selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be successful, 
and I hope ne will — and the Secretary of War is in precisely the 
same situation. If the military commanders in the field cannot 
be successful, not only the Secretary of War, but myself, for the 
time being the master of them both, cannot be but failures. 
[Laughter and applause.] I know General McClellan wishes to 
be successful, and I know he does not wish it any more than the 
Secretary of War for him, and both of them together no more 
than I wish it. [Applause and cries of ' Good.'] Sometimes 
we have a dispute about how many men General McClellan has 
had, and those who would disparage him say that he has had a 
very large number, and those who would disparage the Secretary 
of War insist that General McClellan has had a very small 
number. The basis for this is, there is always a wide difference, 
and on this occasion perhaps a wider one, between the grand 
total on McClellan's rolls and the men actually fit for duty ; and 
those who would dis,./arage him talk of the grand total on paper, 
and those who would disparage the Secretary of War talk of 
those at present fit for duty. General McClellan has sometimes 
asked for things that the Secretary of War did not give him. 
General McClellan is not to blame for asking what he wanted and 
needed, and the Secretary of War is not to blame for not giving 
when he had none to give. [Applause, laughter, and cries of 
•GooJ, good.'] And I say here, as far as 1 know, the Secretary 
of War has withheld no one thing at any time in my power to 
give him. [Wild applause, and a voice—' Give him enough 
now!'] I have no accusation against him. I believe he is » 
brave and able man, [applause.] and I stand here, as justice re- 
quires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged OQ 
the Secretary of War, as withholding from hioa. 



LIFE AND SERVICKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, loi 

*' I have talked longer than I expected to, [cries of ' No, no- 
go on,'] and now I avail myself of ray privilege of saying no 
more." 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIONS OP 
SEPTEMBER, 1862, AND JANUARY, 1863. 

On the twenty-second of September, 1862, Mr. Lincoln 
issued one of the two most important proclamations ever 
/ enned by a President of the United States : that which 
mnounced to the negroes held as slaves in the rebellious 
States that on and after the first day of the new year, they 
should be forever released from bondage. This great docu 
ment, which was read with joy by the loyal residents of the 
North, and which was a source of such infinite happiness 
to the unfortunate class of beings who were to be more 
particularly afi"ected by its provisions, was as follows : 

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of 
America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter as here- 
tofore the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically 
restoring the constitutional relation between the United States 
and the people thereof in those States in which that relation is, 
or may be, suspended or disturbed ; that it is my purpose upon 
the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption 
of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free ac- 
ceptance or rejection of all the slave States, so-called, the peo- 
ple whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United 
States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, the immediate or gradual 
abolishment of slavery within their respective limits, and that 
the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their con- 
sent, upon the continent or elsewhere, with the previously ob- 
tained consent of the government existing, there, will be con- 
tinued ; that on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
Blaves within any State, or any designated part of a State, the 
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free, and the 
executive govetoment of the United States, including the 
military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and main- 
tain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to 
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may 
make for their actual freedom ; that the Executive will, on the first 



132 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 

day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the Statea 
and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respec- 
tively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and 
the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day 
be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United 
States by members chosen thereto, at elections wherein a ma- 
jority of the qualified voters of such Stat/^ shall have partici- 
pated, shall, ir. the absence of strong countervailing testimony, 
be deemed conclusive evidenre that such State and the people 
thereof have not been in rebellion against the United States. 

" That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress en- 
titled, 'An act to make an additional article of war,' approved 
March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figures fol- 
lowing : 

" 'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Hepresentatives of 
the United States of Avierica, in Congress assembled. That here- 
after the following shall be promulgated as an additional article 
of war for the government of the army of the United States, and 
shall be observed and obeyed as such. 

" ' Article — . All officers or persons of the military or naval 
service of the United States are prohibited from employing any 
of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose 
of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have 
escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is 
claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by 
a court-martial of violating this article, shall be dismissed from 
the service. 

" ' Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That tliis act. shall take 
effect from and after its passage.' 

•' Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled, ' An 
act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to 
rieize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,' 
approved July 17, 1862, aud which sections are in the words 
and figures following: 

'"Sec. 9. And belt further enacted, That all slaves of per- 
sons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the 
government of the United States, or who shall in any way give 
aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking 
refuge within the lines of the army ; and all slaves captured 
from such persons or deserted by them, and coming under the 
control of the government of the United States, and all slaves of 
such pei'sons found on (or being within) any place occupied by 
rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United 
States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever 
free of their servitude and not again held as slaves. 

" ' Sec. 10. And be it further enacted. That no slave escaping 
into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any 
of the States, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or 
hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 133 

the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first maka 
oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugi- 
tive is alleged to be due, is his lawful owner, and has not aeoQ 
in arras against the United States in the present rebellion, nor 
in any way given aid and comfort thereto ; and no person en- 
gaged in the military or naval service of the United States 
shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the 
validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any 
other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, 
on pain of being dismissed from the service.' 

" And I do hereby enjoin upon, and order all persons engaged 
in the military and naval service of the United States to ob- 
serve, obey and enforce within their respective spheres of ser- 
vice the act and sections above recited. 

" And the executive will in due time recommend that all citi- 
zens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto 
throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the con- 
stitutional relation between the United States and their respec- 
tive States and people, if the relation shall have been suspended 
or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United 
States, including the loss of slaves. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-second day of 
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States 
the eighty-seventh. 

" By the President : " Abraham Lincoln. 

" Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State." 
Such a bold movement was necessarily distasteful to 
the traitors, and while the Southern journals pronounced 
it to be a bid for the slaves to rise in insurrection, a bid 
which none but a barbarian would devise, it was denounced 
in the Richmond Congress, and a resolution was there 
offered, exhorting the people to slay every Union soldier 
and raider found within their borders, and offering a reward 
to every negro, who would, after the first of January, 1863, 
kill a Unionist. 

The other important proclamation was issued on the 
first of January, 1863, and was worded as follows : 

"Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. a 
proclamation was issued by the President of the United States 
eontaining among other things the following, to wit: 



134- LIFE AND SERVICEa OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-. 

" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the 
people whereof shall then be m rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforth and forever free, and the Ex- 
ecutive Government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress 
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of January afore- 
said, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, 
if any, in which the people therein respectively shall then be in 
rebellion against the United States, and the fact that any State 
or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith repre- 
sented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen 
thereto, at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters 
of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of 
strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion 
against the United States. 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States iu 
time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Gov 
ernmcnt of the United States, and as a fit ati.d necessary war 
measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days 
from the day of the first above-mentioned order, and designate, 
as tlie States and parts of States wherein the people thereof 
respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, 
the following to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. 
Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, La- 
fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City 
of New Orleans. Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, except the forty- 
eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the 
counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 
York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Nor- 
folk and Portsmouth, and which excepted parts are, for the 
present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

"And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I 
do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward 
shall be free ; and that the Executive Government of the 
United States, including the Military and Naval authoritica 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 135 

thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said 
persons. 

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, 
to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence, and I 
recommend to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor 
faithfully for reasonable wages. 

"And I further declare and make known that such persons of 
suitable condition will be received into the armed service of 
the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

"And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor 
of Almighty God. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, this first day of 
r 1 January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
'- * 'J hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of 
the United States of America the eighty-seventh, 
"By the President : "Abraham Lincoln. 

" William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

SUSPENSION OP THE WRIT OF HABEAS 
CORPUS. 

On the twenty-fourth of September, 18G2, two dajs 
after the promulgation of the renowned Emancipation Proc- 
lamation, the following order was published : 

" Whereas, It has become necessary to call into service, not 
only volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the State by 
draft, in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United 
States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by 
the ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure, and 
from giving aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection : 

" Now, therefore, be it ordered : 

" First. That during the existing insurrection, and as a ne- 
cessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insur- 
gents, their aiders and abettors, within the United States, and 
all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia 
drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and com- 
fort to the rebels against the authority of the United States, 
shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punish- 
ment by courts-martial or military commit;sions. 

" Tliird. Tliat tlie writ of habeas corpus is suspended in re- 
spect to all ])ersons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter du- 
ring the rebellion shall be imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, 
militftry prison, or other place of confiuement, by any military 



136 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

authority or by the sentence of any court-martial or military 
commission. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be aflixed. 

" Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of 
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States 
the eighty-seventh. 

" By the President, " Abraham Lincoln, 

" Wm, H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

The suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus was 
naturally obnoxious to Northern sympathizers with trea- 
son, and for some time their newspaper organs were daily 
filled with editorial and other articles, teeming with in- 
vidious criticism and abuse. The act placed more power 
in the hands of the President than was acceptable to men 
who, by their voice and pen, if not by their pecuniary 
means, were aiding and abetting the enemies of the country, 
aad as they were not aware what moment they might be 
an'ested and imprisoned for their despicable crimes, in 
their regard for their personal safety, they forgot their 
prudence, and abused the Executive. The beneficial ef- 
fects of the order were not over-estimated by Mr. Lincoln, 
and with its promulgation almost entirely ceased the in- 
teference with enlistments, which had too often before that 
date delayed the organization of regiments in some of the 
loyal States. 

THE SABBATH TO BE OBSERVED. 

On the sixteenth of November, 18C2, the following 
order was issued to the soldiers and sailors of the Union : 

" The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, 
desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by 
the officers and" men in the military and naval service. The im- 
portance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the 
sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming def(;r- 
ence to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due 
regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the 
Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 137 

" The discipline and character of the National forces shoula 
aot suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the pro- 
fanation of the day or name of the Most High. 'At this time of 
public distress' adopting the words of Washington in 1776, 
' meu may find enough to do in the service of God and their 
country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.' 
The first general order issued by the Father of his Country 
after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit iu 
which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended : 
* The General hopes and trusts that every officer and niau will 
endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defend- 
ing the dearest rights and liberties of his country.' 

"Abraham Lincoln." 



HIS ANNUAL MESSAGE.— IMPORTANT RECOM- 
MENDATIONS TO CONGRESS. 

On the first of December, 1862, Mr. Lincoln sent in to 
Congress his annual message ; giving a satisfactory resumd 
of the events of the previous twelve months ; calling the 
attention of the Senators and Representatives to important 
matters which should receive their notice ; recommending 
the organization of national banking associations, under 
the hope and belief that they Avould be the means of pro- 
moting the early resumption of specie payments ; re-im- 
pressed upon them the importance of his plan of " compen- 
sated emancipation;" repeated at length his views upon 
the slavery question, and recommended the adoption of 
the following resolutions and articles amendatory to the 
Constitution : 

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds 
of both houses concurring, that the following articles be pro- 
posed to the Legislatures or Conventions of the several States, 
as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all oi 
any oI which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said 
I-ogislatures or Conventions to be valid as part or parts of the 
said Constitution, namely : 

"Article — . Every State wherein slavery now exists, which 
shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before the 
first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine 
hundred, shall receive compensation from the United States aa 
follows, to wit : 



138 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" The President of the United States shall deliver to every 
euch State, bonds of the United States, bearing interest at the 

rate of , for each slave shown to have been therein, by the 

eighth census of the United States ; said bonds to be delivered 
to such State by instalments, or in one parcel at the completion 
of the abolishment, according as the same shall have been 
gradual or at one time within such State ; and interest shall 
bf gin to run upon any such bond only from the proper time of its 
delivery as aforesaid, and afterward. Any State having received 
bonds as aforesaid, and afterward introducing or tolerating 
slavery therein, shall refund to the United States the bonds so 
received, or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon. 

"Article — . All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual free- 
dom, by the chances of the war at any time, before the end of 
the rebellion, shall be forever free ; but all owners of such, who 
shall not have been disloyal, shall be compensated for them at 
the same rates as is provided for States adopting abolishment 
of slavery—but in such a way that no slave shall be twice 
accounted for. 

"Article — . Congress may appropriate money, and otherwise 
provide for colonizing free colored persons with their own con- 
sent, at any place or places without the United States." 

The message and its recommendations were received 
with the same eclat which has attended all the official 
docmnents penned by the illustrious statesman. The 
proclamation of September had awakened the people of 
the Union to the vast advantages to be derived from the 
adoption of his views and suggestions on every thing re- 
lating to slavery, and as the day on which the unfortunate 
blacks were to be rescued from a life of degradation ap- 
proached, thousands, who had hitherto protested against 
interference with the " peculiar institution," united with 
their old political opponents, and awaited anxiously the 
hour when the order of emancipation was to go into effect. 
Residents of foreign lands were no less eager for the time 
to arrive when the Federal Government should strike off 
the fetters of the slave, and among other complimentary 
addresses sent to the President, was one from Manchester, 
England, from which we make the following extracts : 

"As citizfins of Manchester, assembled at the Free-Trade 
Hall, we beg to express our fraternal sentiments toward you and 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 13iJ 

yonr country. "We rejoice in your greatness as an outgrowth 
of England, whose blood and language you slaare, whose orderly 
Rud legal freedom you have applied to new circumstances, over 
a region immeasurably greater than our own. We honor your 
Free States, as a singularly happy abode for the working rail- 
lions where industry is honored. One thing alone has, in the 
past, lessened our sympathy with your country and our confi- 
dence in it — we moan the ascendency of politicians who not 
merely maintained negro slavery, but desired to extend and root 
it more firmly. We joyfully honor you, as the President, and 
the Congress with you, for many decisive steps toward practi- 
cally exemplifying your belief in the words of your great 
founders: 'All men are created free and equal,' You have 
procured the liberation of the slaves in the district around 
Washington, and th(>reby made the centre of your Federation 
visibly free. You have enforced the laws against the slave- 
trade, and kept up your fleet against it, even while every ship 
was wanted for service in your terrible war. You have nobly 
decided to receive embassadors from the negro republics of 
Hayti and Liberia, thus forever renouncing that unworthy 
prejudice which refuses the rights of humanity to men and 
women on account of their color. In order more efiectually to 
stop the slave-trade, you have made with our Queen a treaty, 
which your Senate has ratified, for the right of mutual search. 
Your Congress has decreed freedom as the law forever in the 
vast unoccupied or half unsettled Territories which are directly 
subject to its legislative power. It has offered pecuniary aid to 
all States whj^h will enact emancipation locally, and has for- 
bidden your generals to restore fugitive slaves who seek thcii 
protection. You have entreated the slave-masters to accept 
these moderate offers ; and after long and patient waiting, you, 
as Commander-in-chief of the Army, have appointed to-morrow, 
the first of January, 1863, as the day of unconditional freedom 
for the slaves of the rebel States. We implore you, for your 
own honor and welfare, not to faint in your providential mission. 
While your enthusiasm is aflame, and the tide of eveots runs 
high, let the work be finished effectually. Leave no root of 
bitterness to spring up and work fresh misery to your children. 
It is a mighty task, indeed, to reorganize the industry not only 
of four millions of the colored race, but of five millions of 
whites. Nevertheless, the vast progress you have made in the 
short space of twenty months, fill us with hope that every 
Btain on your freedom will shortly be removed, and that the 
" erasure of that foul blot upon civilization and Christianity— 
chattle slavery — during your Presidency, will cause the name of 
Abraham Lincoln to be honored and revered by posterity." 

In answer to this flattering letter, Mr. Lincoln sent a 
"happy respoHse, in which he explained the motive which 



140 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

had prompted him to the undeviating course he hf^s pur- 
sued siuce his inauguration. He had, he said, considered 
the duty of maintaining and preserving the Constitution 
and the integrity of the Federal Republic paramount to 
all others, and as a conscientious purpose to perform that 
duty was the key to all the measures of his administrar- 
tion, he could not, if he would, under his oath and our 
frame of government, depart from that purpose. 

THE PRESIDENT VISITS THE ARMY OP THE 
POTOMAC. 

Early in April, 1863, the President left Washington on 
a visit to the Army of the Potomac. He had in the pre- 
vious year, when the same noble troops were resting at 
Harrison's Landing, after their campaign before Richmond, 
gone thither to observe for himself their ti'ue condition, 
and upon other occasions has visited their camping-grounds, 
where he has been always received with great enthusiasm. 
Upon the visit to which we now refer, he was accompanied 
by Mrs. Lincoln and one of his sons, and an eye-witness 
thus describes the proceedings incident to the entertain- 
ment of such distinguished guests : 

On the morning of April seventh, 1863, a reception was 
had in General Hooker's tent, the members of the staff pass- 
ing in and being introduced to the President by the Chief of 
Staff. Mr. Lincoln was in unusual good humor, and com- 
pletely banished the constraint felt by all by his sociability 
and shafts of wit. The interview lasted some time, much 
to the enjoyment of all, until finally the officers one by one 
dropped out, and the hour designated for the review ar- 
rived. Early in the morning the several cavalry brigades 
commenced moving towards the field selected for the re- 
view, and during the forenoon were engaged forming the 
lines and stationing guards to keep off the crowd. At 
noon the roar of artillery announced that the cortege had 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 141 

arrived. President Lincoln, mounted on a magnificent 
bay, adorned with heavy trappings, rode steadily and 
rapidly along the line, with Generals Hooker and Stone- 
man at his side, and followed by an imposing cavalcade 
of general officers, aides-de-camp and orderlies. Having 
returned to the right of the line, a position was selected for 
the President upon a slight eminence, while the cavalry at 
a walk passed in review before him, the bands playing 
and the bugles sounding merril}^ Mrs. Lincoln occupied 
a carriage at the right of the President while the regi- 
ments passed in review, surrounded by major-generals and 
stars of lesser magnitude. After the cavalry had moved 
o(f tRe field, the lancers, in splendid order, wheeled around 
into line fronting the President, while the light artillery 
dashed at a gallop through the avenue thus formed, the 
guns and caissons bounding over the irregularities as 
though the wheels were of India rubber. The cannon 
were soon off the field, the lancers filed in behind the cav- 
alcade of generals, spectators vanished, and the plateau, 
torn and trodden by the squadrons, was left to the scatter- 
ing working parties engaged in preparing the ground foi 
the grand review of infantry. The President also rode 
over to the head-quarters of several commanding officers, 
.and during the day reviewed the reserve artillery. 

Doubtless the lady readers are anxious to know iq 
what dress the wife of the Chief Magistrate visited the 
army, how she appeared, what she said, and how she liked 
the contrast — the Executive mansion, with its costly fur 
iiiture, and the bare floor, cot and camp stools of the field 
ifrs. Lincoln's attire was exceedingly simple — of that pe- 
culiar style of simplicity which creates at the time no im- 
presf.ion upon the mind, and prevents one from remem- 
bering any article of dress. In this case there was nothing 
to attract attention, and after she had entered the tent 
there was not one in twenty of those gathered about who 
9 



142 LIFE AND REKVICES OF ABU A HAM LINCOLN". 

conlcl toll what slio wore. A rich blaclv silk dross, with 
narrow flounces; a blatk cape, with a broad trimming of 
velvet around the border, aud a plain hat of the same hue, 
composed her costume. A shade of weariness, doubtless 
the result of her labors in behalf of the sick and wounded 
in Washington, rested upon her countenance ; but tha 
change seemed pleasant to her, and the scenes of camp 
were noted with evident interest. The President wore a 
dark sack overcoat and a fur muffler, while Master Lincoln 
sported a suit of gray, and rambled about among the tents, 
examining the quarters of the staff, and watched by the 
orderlies and sentries Avith a curiosity somewhat amusing 

THE EISTROLMETTT ACT AND THE PvIGHTS 
OP ALIENS. 
To enumerate all the proclamations which the President 
issued during the year 18C3, would be impossible in this 
work, and we must therefore restrict ourselves to those 
vi'hich were of more than usual interest. The one in re- 
gard to the rights of aliens, under the act calling out the 
national forces, was one of these, and reads as follows : 

"Whereas, The Con.oresa of the United States at its last 
session enacted a law cntilled, 'An act for enrolling and calling 
out the national I'orces and for other purposes,' which was ap 
proved on the third day of March last, and, 

''Whereafi, It is recited in tlie said act that there now exists 
in the United States an insurrection and rebellion ajrainst the 
authority thereof, and it is, under the Constitution of the United 
States, the duty of the Government to suppress insurrection and 
rebellion, to fi;narantee to each State a republican form of gov- 
ernment, and to preserve the public tranquility, and 

" Wliereas, Fur these high purposes a military force is indis- 
pensable, to rai.'^e aud support wiiich all persons ought willingly 
tc contribute ; and 

"Whereas, No service can be more praiseworthy and honor- 
able than that which is rendered for the maintenance of tha 
Constitution and the Union, and the consequent preservation 
of the Government; and 

" Whereas, For the reasons thus recited, it was enacted by tho 
said statute that all able-bodied mule citizens of the United 
Btatc3 and persons of foreign birth, who shall have declared oa 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 143 

oath their intentions to become citizens, under and in pursnaneo 
of I lie laws thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-f.vu 
years, with certain exceptions not necessary to be here men- 
tioned, are declared to constitute the national forces, and shall 
be liable to perform military duty in the service of the United 
States, when called out by the President for that purpose ; 
and 

" ]VJiereas, It is claimed, and in behalf of persons of foreign 
birth within the ages specified in said act who have heretoforo 
declared on oath their intentions to become citizens under and 
in pursuance of the laws of the United States, and who have 
not exercised the right of sutfrage or any other political fran- 
chise under the laws of the United States, or any of the States 
thereof, are not absolutely precluded by their aforesaid declara- 
tion of intention from renouncing their purpose to become 
citizens, and that, on the contrary, such persons under treaties 
or the law of nations, retain a riglit to renounce that purpose 
and to forego the privilege of citizenship and residence within 
the United States under the obligations imposed by the afore- 
said act of Congress. 

" Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions concerning 
the liability of persons concerned to perform the service 
required by such enactment, and to give it full effect, I do 
hereby order and proclaim that no plea of alienage will be 
rsceived or allowed to exempt from the obligations imposed by 
the aforesaid act of Congress, any person of foreign birth who 
shall have declared, on oath, his intention to become a citizen 
of the United States under the laws thereof, and who shall be 
found within the United States at any time daring the con- 
tinuance of the present insurrection and rebellion, at or after 
the expiration of the sixty-five days from the date of this proc- 
lamation, nor shall any such pica of alienage be allowed la 
favor of any such person who has so as aforesaid declared his 
intention to become a citizen of the United States, and shall 
have exercised at any time the right of suffrage or any other 
political franchise within the United States, under the laws 
thereof, or under the laws of any of the several States. 

" In witness whiM-eof I have hereunto set rny hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this eighth day of May, 
in the year of our Lord 18G3. and of the independence of the 
United Sti^tes the eighty-seventh. 

" By the President, "Abraham Lincoiji. 

"William H Seward, Secretary of State." 

A KATIO.S'AL THAWSS GIVING ORDERED. 

On tlie fifteenth day of July, 1803, the President or- 
'lered the sixth of the follov/ing month to be set apart as 



14:4 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

a day of National Thanksgiving. Victories had crowned 
our arms on land and sea, and no greater cause for offer- 
ing thanks to the Almighty ever prompted the Chief ]\Iag- 
istrate of a country to call the people together, and few 
proclamations were ever written more chaste and beauti- 
ful than the following : 

" It has pleased Almighty Cod to hearken to the supplications 
and prayers of au afflicted jieople, and to vouclisafe to the army 
and the navy of the United States, on the land and on the sea, 
victories so signal and so ellective as to furnish reasonable 
grounds for angn)ented confidence that tiie union of these States 
will be maintained, their constitutions preserved, and their peace 
and prosperity permanently preserved. 

*■ ii'ii these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice 
of li.'e, limb and liberty, incurred by the brave, patriotic and 
loyal citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of the country 
follo;Vs in tlic train of tiiese fearful bereavements. It is meet 
and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almiglity 
Father, and the power of His hand ecpially in these triumphs 
and these sorrows. 

" Now, therefore, be it known, tliat I do set apart Thursday, 
the sixth day of August next, to be observed as a day for na- 
tional Thanksgiving, praise, and prayer, and I invite the people of 
the United States to assemble on that occasion in their custom- 
ary places of worship, and in the forms approved by their own 
conscience, render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for 
the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and 
invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger 
which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel re- 
bellion ; to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the 
counsels of the government with wisdom adecpiate to so great a 
national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consola- 
tion throughout the length and breadtii of our land all those 
who through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles and 
sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body or estate and 
family, to lead the whole nation through pat lis of repentance 
and submission to the Divine Will, back to the perfect enjoy- 
ment of Union and fraternal peace. 

" In witness whereof, I have herounto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be ailixcd. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this 1.5th day of July, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
three, and of the independence of the United Slates of America 
the eighty-eighth. "Auraham Linooi^n. 

" By the President : 

" William II. Skward, Secretary of State." 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABKAIIAM LINCOLN. 145 

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDEISTT ON THE 
EMANCIPATIOl-I PROCLAMATION. 

The following letter, written in August, 18G3, in answer 
to an invitation to attend a meeting of unconditional Union 
men held in Illinois, gives at length the President's views 
at that time on his Emancipation proclamation : 

" ExF.cuTivK Mansion, Washington, August 26th, 1863. 
"My Dear Sir: — Your letter inviting me to attend a mass 
meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at the capi>ol 
of Illinois on the third day of September, has been received. It 
would be very agreeable to me thus to meet my old friends at 
my own home; but I cannot just now be absent from this city 
BO long as a visit there would require. The meeting is to be of 
all those who maintain unconditional devotion to the Union ; 
and I am sure tliat my old political friends will thank me for 
tendering, as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other noble 
men whom no partisan malice cr partisan hope can make false 
to the nation's life. There are those who are dissatisfied with 
me. To such I would say : — You desire peace, and you blame 
me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? There 
are but three conceivable ways : — First, to suppress the rebel- 
lion by force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for 
it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If. you are not for it, a 
second way is to give up the Uuion. I am against this. If you 
are, you should say so, plainly. If you are not for force, nor yet 
for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compro- 
mise. I do not believe that any compromise embracing the 
maintenance of the Union is now possible. All that I learn 
leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebel- 
lion is its military — its army. 'J'hat army dominates all the 
country and all the people within its range. Any offer of any 
terms made by any man or men within that range in opposition 
to that army is simply nothing for the present, because such 
man or men have no power whatever to enforce their side of a 
compromise, if one were made with them. To illustrate : Sup- 
pose refugees from the South and peace men of the North get 
together in convention, and frame and proclaim a compromise 
embracing the restoration of the Union. In what way can that 
compromise be used to keep General Lee's army out of Penn- 
sylvania? General Meade's army can keep Lee's army out of 
Pennsylvania, and I think can ultimately drive it out of ex- 
istence. But no paper compromise to which the controllers of 
General Lee's army are not agreed, can at all affect that army. 
In an effort at such compromise we would waste time which the 
enemy would improve to our disadvantage, and that would be 
all. A compromise, to be elfcctlve, must be made either with 



146 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABIiAlIAM LINCOLN. 

those who control the rebel army, or with the people, first liber- 
ated from the domination of that army by the success of our 
army. Now, allow me to assure you that no word or intimation 
from the rebel army, or from any of the men controlling it, in 
iclation to any peace compromise, has ever come to my know- 
ledge or belief. All charges and intimations to the contrary 
are deceptive and groundless. And I pron)ise yon that if any 
Buch proposition shall hereafter come, it shall not be rejected 
and kept secret from you. I freely acknowledge myself to bs 
the servant of the people, according to the bond of service, the 
United States constitution ; and that, as such, I am responsible 
to them. But, to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about 
the negro. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between 
you and myself upon that subject. I certainly wish that all 
men could be free, while you, I suppose, do not. Yet I have 
neither adopted nor proposed any measure which is not consist- 
ent with even your view, provided you are for the Union. I 
suggested compensated emancipation, to which you replied that 
you wished not to be taxed to buy negroes. But I have not 
asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to 
save you from greater taxation, to save the Union exclusively 
by other means. 

"You dislike the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps 
would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I 
think differently. I think that the constitution invests its com- 
mander-in-chief with the law of war in time of war. The most 
that can be said, if so much, is, that the slaves are property. 
Is t'here, has there ever been, any question that by the law of 
war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when 
needed ? And is it not needed whenever taking it helps us or 
hurts the enemy ? Armies, the world over, destroy enemies' prop- 
erty when they cannot use it ; and even destroy their own to 
keep it from the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all in their 
power to help themselves or hurt the enemy, except a few 
things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions are 
the massacre of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and 
female. But the proclamation, as law, is valid or is not valid. 
If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is valid it cannot 
be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. 
Som-e of you profess to think that its retraction would operate 
favorably for the Union. Why better after the retraction than 
before the issue? There was more than a year and a half of 
trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation was is- 
sued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an ex- 
plicit notice, that it was coming unless averted by those in 
revolt returning to their allegiance. The war has certainly 
progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation 
as before. I know as fully as oue can kuow the opinions of others, 
that some of the commanders of our avmies in the Held, who 



I 



LIFE AND SEUVU^ES OF AbRAllAM LINCOLN. 147 

have given us our moi^t important vietories, believe the emanci- 
pation policy and the iiiil of colored troops constitute tbe 
heaviest blows yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at least one 
of those important successes could not have been achieved when 
it was but for the aid of black soldiers. Among the command- 
ers holding these views are some who have never had any affinity 
with what is called abolitionism or with 'republican paity 
politics.' — But who hold them purely as military opinions. I 
submit their opinions as being entitled to some weight against 
the objections often urged that emancipation and arming the 
blacks are unwise as military measures, and were not adopted 
as such in good faith. You say that you will nut light to free 
negroes. 8ome of them seem to be willing to fight for you — 
but no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. 
I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the 
Union. Whenever you shall nave conquered all resistance to 
the Union, if I shall urge you to continue lighting, it will be au 
apt time then for you to declare that you will not fight to free 
negroes. I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to 
whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to 
that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do 
you think differently ? I thought that whatever negroes can be 
got to do as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers 
to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? 
13nt negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should 
they do any thing for us if we will do nothing for them ? If 
they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the 
strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the prom- 
ise, being made, must be kept. The signs look better. The 
Father of Waters again goes un vexed to the sea. Thanks to 
the great North-west for it. Xot yet wholly to them. Three 
hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone and 
Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The .Sunny South, too, 
in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the spot their 
part of the history was jutted down in black and while. The 
job was a great national one, and let none be banned who bore 
an honorable part in it ; and, while those who have cleared the 
great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard 
to say that any thing has been more bravely and better done than 
at Antietam, Murfreeshoro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of 
less note. Nor nnist Uncle Sam's weblleet be forgotten. At 
all the v>-aters' margins tliey have been present : — not only ou 
the deep sea, the broad bay and the rapid river, but also up the 
narrow, muddy bayou ; and wherever the ground was a little 
damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. 
For the great republic — for the princii)les by which it lives and 
keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. Peace does 
not appear so far distant as it did. I hope it will conie soon, aud 
come to stay : aud so come as to be worth the keeping in all future 



143 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAKAM LINCOLN. 

time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there 
can be no successful appeal from the ballot to tlie bullet, and 
that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and 
pay the cost. And then there will be some black men who can 
remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and 
steady eye, and well poised bayonet, they have helped mankind 
on to this great consunnnation ; wliile I fear that there will be 
some white men unable to forget that with malignant heart and 
deceitful speecli they have striven to hinder it. Still let us not 
be over sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite 
sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that 
a just God, in his own good time, will give us tlie rightful re- 
sult. Yours very truly, "A.Lincoln." 

During September and October, 1SG3, the following 
proclamations were published : 

SUSPENSION OP THE WRIT OF HABEAS 
COHPUS IIT CERTAIN CASES. 

" WAsniNoroN, Sept. Ibth, 18G3. 
" Whereas, the Constitution of the United States has or- 
dained that 'the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall 
not be suspended, unless when in cases of rel^ellion or invasion 
tbe ])ublic safety may require it ;' and 

" Whereas, a rebellion was existing on the third day of March, 
18G3, which rebellion is still existing; and 

" Whereas, by a statute which was approved on that day, it 
was enacted by the Senate and House of Kepresentatives of the 
United States in Congress assembled, that during the present 
insurrection the President of the United States, whenever in hia 
judgment the public safety may require, is authorized to suspend 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout 
the United States, or any part thereof; and 

"Whereas, in the judgment of the President the public safety 
does require that the privilege of the said writ shall now be sus- 
pended throughout the United States in cases where, by the au- 
thority of the President of the United States, military, naval and 
civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons 
under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of 
war, spies, or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soL 
diers, or seamen enrolled, drafted or mustered or enlisted in or 
belonging to the land or naval forces of the United States, or as 
deasrters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law, or to 
the Rules and Articles of War, or to the rules and regulations 
prescribed for the military or naval service by the authority of 
the President of the United States, or for resisting a draft, or 
for any other offence against the military or naval service : 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 149 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, do hereby proclaim and make known to all whom it may 
concern, that the privilege of tlie writ of habeas corpus is sus- 
pended throughout the United States in the several cases beforw 
mentioned, and that the suspension will continue throughout the 
duration of the said rebellion ; or until this prochimation shall by 
a subsequent one, to be issued by the Presielent of the United 
States, be modified and revoked. And I do hereby require all 
magistrates, attorneys and other civil officers within the United 
States, and all officers and others in the military and naval 
services of the United States, to take distinct notice of this sus- 
pension, and give it full effect ; and all citizens of the United 
States to conduct and govern themselves accordingly and in con- 
formity with the Constitution of the United States and the laws 
of Congress in such cases made and provided. 

" In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed, this fifteenth 
da^ of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eiglit 
hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the eighty-eighth. 

" Abraham Lincoln. 

" By the President : 

" William H. Seward, Secretary of Slate." 

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. 

" The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with 
the blessings of fruitfvd fields and healthful skies. To these 
bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to 
forget the source ffom which they come, others have been added, 
which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to 
penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible 
to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. 

" In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and 
severity, whicli has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke tha 
aggression of foreign States, peace has been preserved with all 
uations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected 
and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except ia 
the theatre of military conflict ; while that theatre has been 
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the 
Union. 

"The needful diversions of wealth and strength from the fields 
of peaceful industry to the national defence have not arrested 
the plough, the shuttle or the ship. The axe has enlarged the 
borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and 
coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abun- 
dantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, not- 
withstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the 
siege and the battle-field ; and the country, rtjoiciug in the con* 



150 LIFE A^a SERVICES OF ABRAHAM Ll^^COLN- 

Bequences of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to ex- 
pect continuance of yeai's with larue increase of freedom. 

"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal liiind 
worked out these great things. 'I'liey are the gracious gifis of 
the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our 
Bins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 

"It has seemed to me fit and proper that tliey should ba 
Bolemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one 
lie;u-t and voice by the whole American people ; I do, therefore,, 
invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and 
also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign 
lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November 
next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Piayer to our beneficent 
Father, who dvvelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to 
them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due te him for 
such singular deliverances and blessings ; they do also, with 
humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, 
commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, 
orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in 
which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the 
interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of tho 
nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the 
Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tran- 
ciuillity, and union. 

"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Done at the city of AVashington this third day of October, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty- 
eighth. " Abraham Lincoln. 

■'By the President: 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

Wc have shown, in the first pages of this volume, that 
the early instruction of Abraham Lincoln was of that re- 
ligious character which could not fail to have a proper 
effect upon his after life, and it is not therefore surprising 
that during his Presidential career he has embraced every 
opportunity to publicly acknowledge the source from 
'Vil'^nce have come all the blessings the people of tht^ 
Union have received during the progress of the civil war ; 
and the unanimity with which liis numerous requests for 
a general Thanksgiving have been acquiesced in, can but 
be gralil'ving to their author. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 151 



THUEE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE MEN 
CALLED FOR. 

" Whereas, The term of service of part of the volunteer forces 
of the United States will expire during the coming year; and 
whereas, in addition to the men raised by the present draft, it ia 
deemed expedient to call out three hundred thousand volunteers, 
lo serve for three years or the war — not, however, exceeding 
three years. 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called into 
actual service, do issue this my proclamation, calling upon tho 
Governors of the dillerent States to raise and have enlisted into 
the United States service, for the various companies and regi- 
ments in the field from their respective States, their quotas of 
three hundred thousand men. 

" I further proclaim that all the volunteers thus called out and 
duly enlisted shall receive advance pay, premium and bounty, as 
heretofore communicated to the (4overnors of States by the 
War Department, through the Provost Marshal General's office, 
by special letters. 

" I further proclaim that all volunteers received under this 
call, us well as all others not heretofore credited, shall be duly 
credited and deducted from the quotas established for the next 
draft. 

" I further proclaim that, if any State shall fail to raise the 
quota assigned to it by the War Department under this call; 
then a draft for the deficiency in said quota shall be made in 
said State, or on the districts of said State, for their due pro- 
portion of said quota, and the said draft shall commence ou the 
fifth day of January, 1864. 

"And I further proclaim that nothing in this proclamation 
shall interfere with existing orders, or with those which may 
be issued for the present draft in the States where it is now in 
progress or where it has not yet been commenced. 

" The quotas of the States and districts will be assigned by 
the War Department, through the Provost Marshal General's 
office, due regard being had for the men heretofore furnislied, 
whether by volunteering or drafting, and the recruiting will be 
conducted in accordance with such instructions as have been or 
may be issued by that dopartnieut. 

"In issiring this proclauialion I address myself not only to 
the Governors of the several States, but also to the good and 
loyal people thereof, invoking them to lend their cheerful, will- 
ing and etfective aid to the measures thus adopted, with a vicnv 
to reinforce our victorious ai'uiies now in the field and bring 
our needful military operations to a prosperous end, thus closiug 
forever the fouutaiua of sedition and civil war. 



152 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused 

the seal of the United .States to be atlixi d. 

"Done at the city of Washingt.m, this sevonteenth day of 
October, in the year of our l-oid one thousand eiglit hundred 
and sixty-three, and of the iudepeuueuce of the United States 
the eiglity-eif^hth. "Abraham Lincoln. 

" By the President : 

" Wm. it. Seward, Secretary of State." 

THE PRESIDE]S"T'S DEDICATORY ADDRESS AT 
GETTYSBUEG. 

On the ninetecuth of November, 18G3, the President par- 
ticipated in the solemn and imposing ceremonies incident to 
the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. 
Arriving in the town on the previous evening, he was the 
recipient of a delightful serenade, which he acknowledged 
in a brief speech. On the next day he delivered the fol- 
lowing beautiful Dedicatory Address : 

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and 
dedicated to tlie proposition that all men are created equal. 
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, tet^tiiig whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of tliat war. We 
are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of 
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It 
is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

" But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot conse- 
crate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long 
remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they 
did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to 
tlie unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- 
ing before us — that from these honored dead we take increased 
devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full mea- 
sure of devotion, — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall 
not have di(>d in vain, that the nation shall, under (Jod, have a 
Lew birth of freedom, and that tlie government of the people, by 
the jeople, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION. 
On the seventh of December, 1863, the following recom- 
mendatioa was made to the people of the country : 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 153 

" ExKcuTivE Mansion, Washington, Dec. Ith, 1863. — Reliable 
information beii.g received that the insurgent force is retreating 
from East Tennessee, uiiiler circumstances rendering it probable 
that the Union forces cannot liereafter be dislodged from that 
important position, and esteeming this to be of high National 
consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on the re- 
ceipt of this, informally assemble at their places of worship, au(3 
render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this 
great advancement of the National cause. "A. Lincoln." 

THE ANNTJAL MESSAGE OP 1863— FULL PAR- 
DON OPPEHED TO THE REBELS. 

On the ninth of December, 1863, President Lincoln sent 
into Congress his Annual Message, and never were his wis- 
dom and moderation more satisfactorily exhibited than in 
this document. His review of our foreign relations and the 
operations of the viirious departments of the Government 
was comprehensive and clear, while on the subject of the 
rebellion he- re-affirmed all that he had written in his pre- 
vious messages, and in referring to the success which had 
attended the proclamation of emancipation, he said : 
" While I remain in my present position, I shall not at- 
tempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation ; 
nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by 
the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of 
Congress." 

Accompanying the Message, was a proclamation oETering 
for the acceptance of the traitors a fair and practicable mode, 
by which they might return to their allegiance, and once 
again become loyal citizens. It was worded as follows : 

''Wliereas, In and by the Constitution of the United States, 
it is provided that the President ' shall have power to grant re- 
prieves and pardons for offences against the United States, ex- 
cept in cases of impeachment;" and 

" Wiereas, A rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State 
po^ernmonts of several States have for a longtime been sub- 
verted, and many persons have committed and are now guilty 
of treason against the United States ; and 

" Wiereas, With reference to said rebellion and treason, laws 
have been enacted by Congress, declaring forfeitures and con- 



154 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-. 

fiscations of proporty and liberation of slaves, all upon ternia 
and eondilions therein stated, and also dechiring' that the I'rcs- 
idcjit wiis tlierehy authorized at any time thereafter, hy jjrucla- 
mation, to extend to persons who may have participated hi tlie 
existing rebellion in any State, or part tliereof, pardon and am- 
nr'sty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such con- 
ditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare ; and 

" Whereas, Tlie Congressional declaration for limited and 
conditional pardfm accords with well-established judicial expo- 
sition of the pardoning power; and 

" Wliercas, AV'ith reference to said rebellion, the President of 
the United States has issued several proclamations, with pro- 
visioris in regard to the liberation of slaves ; and 

Whereas, It is now desired by some persons heretofore en- 
piiged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United 
States, and to re-inaugurate loyal State governnieuts witliin and 
fur their respective States ; 

"Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the U?Mtod 
States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to nil persMi!? 
who have, directly or by imjilication, })articip;iled in the exist- 
ing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a rv\A. pardon 
is hercljy granted to them and each of tliem. with restoration of 
all rights of j)ro[)erty, except as to slaves, and in property cases 
where rights of tliird parties shall have intervened, and upon the 
condition that every such person shall take and subscribe ao 
cath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; 
and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, 
and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit : 

"'I , do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God. 

that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend tho 
Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States 
tliereunder; and that 1 will, in like manner, abide by and faith- 
fully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing 
rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not re- 
fiealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by decision of the 
Supreme Court ; and that 1 will, in like manner, abide by and 
faithfully support all proclamations of the President made du- 
ring the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long 
and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of tho 
Sujireme Court. So help me God.' 

"The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing 
provisions are all who are or shall have been civil or diplomatic 
(iflicors or agents of the so-called Confederate Government ; all 
who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid 
the rebellion; all who are or shall have been militaiy or naval 
officers of said Confederate Government above the rank of 
Colonel in the army or of Lieutenant in ihe navy; all who left 
Beats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all 
who resigned their commissions in the army or navy of tho United 



LIFE AND SEEVICES OF ABRAHAM LIN-COLN. 155 

Statos, and aftciwards aided tlio rebellion, and all who have en- 
gaged in any way, in treating colored persons or white person?, 
in charge ot" such, otlierwiso than lawfully, as prisoners of war, 
and which persons inay be found in the United States service, 
as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacitj'. 

"And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that 
whenever, in any of the Slates of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Caro- 
lina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than 
one-tenth in number of the votes cast in sucli State at the Presi- 
dential election of the year of our Lord 1860, each having taken 
the oath aforesaid and not b.aving since violated it, and bei'ig a 
qualiQed voter by the election law of the State existing imme- 
diately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all 
others, shall re-establish a State government which s'lall be Re- 
publican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be 
recognized as the true government of the State, and the State 
shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional pro- 
vision, which declares that ' the United States shall guarantee 
to every State in this Union a Republican form of government, 
and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and, on appli- 
cation of the Legislature, or the executive (when the Legisla- 
ture cannot be convened), against domestic violence.' 

"And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that 
any provision which may be adopted by such State Government 
in relation to the freed people of such Stale, which shall recog- 
nize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their 
education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary ar- 
rangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, 
and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National 
Executive. And it is suggested as not improper, that, in con- 
structing a loyal Slate government in any State, the name of 
the Stale, the boundary, the subdivisions, the Constitution, and 
the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, bo maintained, 
subject only to the modifications made necessary by the con.li- 
tious hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, rot contra- 
vening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by 
those framing the new State Government. 

" To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this 
proclamation, so far as it relates to State Governnnnts, has 
no reference to States wherein loyal State Governments have 
all the while been maintained. And for the same reason, it may 
be proper to further say, that whether members sent to Congress 
from any Stale shall be admitted to seats constitutionally, rests 
exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent 
with the Executive. And still further, that this prochimation 
is intended to present the people of the States wherein Ih'i 
National authority has been suspended, and loyal State (;overn. 
ments have been subveited, a mode in and by wliich the Na- 



156 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tional authority and loj-al State Govornmonts may be re-estab- 
lished within said States, or in any of them; and, while the 
mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest, with his 
present impressions, it must not be undeustood that no other 
possible mode would be acceptable. 

" Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the eighth 
day of December, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
thrje, and of the Independence of the United States of America 
the eighty-eighth. 

"±5y the President : " Abraham Lincoln. 

" Wm. U. Seward, Secretary of State." 

CALLS MADE FOR SEVEN HUNDRED 
THOUSAND MEN. 

Since the beginning of the present year, 1864, two orderg 
have been issued by the President, with a view of augment- 
ing the armies of the Union to correspond with the require- 
ments of the service. The first, dated February first, is as 
follows : 

" ExKCUTiVE Mansion, Washington, February Iftf, 18C4. — 
Ordered, that a draft for five hundred thousand men, to serve 
three years or during the war, be nuulc on the tenth of March 
next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and 
deducting therefrom so many as have been enlisted or drafted 
into the service prior to the first day of March, and not hereto- 
fore credited. 

" (Signed) "Abraham Lincoln." 

The other, dated March fourteenth, Avas worded as fol- 
lows : 

"ExKCUTivE Mansion, WAsniNGTON, March lAtJi, 1S64. — In 
order to supply the force required to be drafted for the navy, and to 
provide an adecjuate reserve force for all contingencies, in addition 
to the five hundred thousand men called for February 1st, 1864, the 
call is herelty made, and a draft ordered for two hundred thou- 
sand men, fur the military service of the army, navy, and marina 
corps of the United States. The proportionate quotas for the 
different wards, towns, townships, precincts, election districts, 
or counties will be made known through the Provost Marshal 
General's bureau, and account will be taken of the credits and 
deficiencies on former quotas. The Iftth day of April, 1864, la 
designated as the time up to which the numbers required in each 
ward of a city, town, etc., may be raised by voluntary enlist- 
ttient ; and drafts will be made ia each "yard of a city, town, 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 157 

etc., which shall not have filled the quota assig-ned to it within 
tlie time desijruated for the iitiinlier iT(|uiivd to fill the said 
qiiotus. Tiie di'iift will lie coinnn'iiced hh soon utter the Ifith of 
April as practicable, 'i'lie Goveniiiieiit buuiities, as uow paid, 
will be continued until April 15th, 18G4, at which time the ad- 
ditional bounties cease. On and after that date, one hundred 
dollars only will be paid, as provided by the act approved Julj 
22ud, 1861, "Abraham Lincoln. 

" Official. "E. D, TowNSEND, A. A. G. " 

EXPLANATORY PS,OCLAMATION. 

On the twenty-sixth of March, 18G4, the following proc- 
lamation, explanatory of the one issued on the eighth of 
December, 1863, was published : 

"Wltercns, It has become necessary to define the cases in 
which insurgent enemies are entitled to the benefits of tha 
Proclamation of the President of the United States, which was 
made on the 8th day of December, 18('>3, and the nianiicr in which 
they shall iiroceed to avail themselves of these lionellls; 

''And ichereas, The object of that proclamation were to sup- 
press the insurrection and to restore the authority of the United 
States ; 

"And wlicrcas, The amnesty theiein proposed by the Presi- 
dent was otiered with reference to tliese olijects alone; 

" Now, therefore, 1, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the said proclama- 
tion does not a)iply to the cases of jjcrsons who, at the time when 
they seek to obtain the benefits thereof, by taking- the oath thereby 
prescribed, are in military, naval or civil confinement or custody, 
or under bonds or on parole of the civil, military or naval au- 
thorities or agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, or 
persons detained for ofteneep of any kind, either before or after 
conviction ; and that on the contrary, it does ai)ply only to those 
persons who, beingf at large and free from any arrest, confine, 
meiit or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said 
oath, with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing the 
national authority. 

" Prisoners excluded from the amnesty offered in the said 
proclanuition may apply to the President for clemency, like all 
other olTenders, and their applicatiou will receive due con- 
Gidcration. 

" 1 do further declare and proclaim that the oath prescribed 
'n the aforesaid proclamation of the 8th of December, ISO!], 
may be taken and sul)scribed to before any commanding officer, 
civ'il, military or naval, in the service of the United States, or 
any civil or military ofiicer of a State or territory not in insur 
rectioi., who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified for adminis- 
tering oaths. 
10 



158 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

"All office. IS who receive such oaths ure hereby authorized to 
give certificates thereon to the persons respectively by whom 
they are made, and such officers aro hereby required to tiaiismit 
the original records of s.ich oaths at as early a diiy as may be 
coQvenieut to the Department of State, where they will be 60- 
posited and remain in the archives of the government. 

"The Secretary of State will keep a register thereof, and will, 
on application, in proper cases, issue certificates of such record? 
in the customary form of official certificates. 

'■ In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 
ca-i'^ed the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, the twenty-sixth day of 
March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-four, and of the ludeiKudcncc of the United States 
the eighty-eighth. 

" By the l*resident : "Arraiiam Lincoln. 

" Wii. H. Skward, Secretary of Stale." 

REVIEW OP THE PBESTDENT'S POLICY. 

In the number of the Norih American Review for 
January, 1864, a most able article was published, rcvievkr- 
iuf? the policy of President Lincoln, and from it we make 
the following extracts : 

"'Bare is back,' says the Norse proverb, 'without 
brother behind it ;' and this is, by analogy, true of an 
elective magistracy. The hereditary ruler in any critical 
emergency may reckon on the inexhaustible resources of 
l)restige, of sentiment, of superstition, of dependent inter- 
est, while the new man must slowly and painfully create 
all these out of the unwilling material around him, by 
superiority of character, by patient singleness of purpose, 
by sagacious presentiment of popular tendencies and in- 
stinctive sympathy with the national character. Mr. Lin- 
eclii's task was one of peculiar and exceptional difficulty 
Long habit had accustomed the American people to the 
notion of a party in power, and of a President as its crea- 
ture and organ, while the more vital fact, that the execu- 
tive for the time being represents the abstract idea of 
government as a permanent principle superior to all party 
and all private interest, had gradually become unfamiliar. 
They had so long seen the public policy more or lesa 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 159 

directed by views of party, and often even of personal ad- 
vantage, as to be ready to suspect the motives of a chief 
magistrate compelled, for the first time in our history, to 
feel himself the head and hand of a great nation, and to act 
upon the fundamental maxim, laid down by all publicists, 
that the first duty of a government is to defend and main- 
tain its own existence. Accordingly, a powerful weapon 
seemed to bo put into the hands of the opposition by the 
necessity under which the administration found itself of 
applying this old truth to new relations. They were not 
slow in turning it to use, but the patriotism and common- 
sense of the people were more than a match for any 
sophistry of mere party. The radical mistake of the lead- 
ers of the opposition was in forgetting that they had a 
country, and expecting a similar obliviousness on the part 
of the people. In the undisturbed possession of office for 
so many years, they had come to consider the government 
as a kind of public Gift Enterprise conducted by them- 
selves, and whose profits were nominally to be shared 
among the holders of their tickets, though all the prizes 
had a trick of falling to the lot of the managers. Amid 
the tumult of war, when the life of the nation was at stake, 
when the principles of despotism and freedom were grap- 
pling in deadly conflict, they had no higher conception of 
the crisis than such as would serve the purpose of a con- 
tested election ; no thought but of advertising the tickets 
for the next drawing of that private speculation which 
they miscalled the Democratic party. But they were too 
little in sympathy with the American people to under- 
stand them, or the motives by which they were governed. 
It became more and more clear that, in embarrassing the 
administration, their design was to cripple the country ; 
that, by a strict construction of the Constitution, they 
meant nothing more than the locking up of the only 
arsenal whence effective arms could be drawn to defend the 
nation Fortunately, insincerity by its very nature, by 



160 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

its necessary want of conviction, must ere long betray 
itself by its inconsisteucics. It was bartl to believe that 
men had any real horror of sectional war, who were busy 
in fomenting jealousies between East and West; that they 
could be in favor of a war for the Union as it was, who 
were for accepting the violent amendments of Rebellion ; 
that they could be heartily opposed to insurrection in the 
South, who threatened government with forcible resistance 
in the North ; or that they were humanely anxious to stay 
the eifusion of blood, who did not scruple to stir up the 
mob of our chief city to murder and arson, and to compli- 
ment the patriotism of assassins with arms in their hands. 
Believers, if they believed any thing, in the divine right 
of Sham, they brought the petty engineering of the caucus 
to cope with the resistless march of events, and hoped to 
stay the steady drift of the nation's purpose, always set- 
ting deeper and stronger in one direction, with the scoop- 
nets that had served their turn so well in dipping fish from 
the turbid eddies of politics. They have given an example 
of the shortest and easiest way of reducing a great party 
to an inconsiderable faction, 

" The change which three years have brought about, is 
too remarkable to be passed over without comment — too 
weighty in its lesson not to be laid to heart. Never did 
a President enter upon office with less means at his com- 
mand, outside his own strength of heart and steadiness of 
understanding, for inspiring confidence in the people, and 
go winning it for himself, than Mr. Lincoln. All that was 
known of him was that he was a good stump-speaker, 
nominated for his availability — that is, because he had no 
history — and chosen by a party with whose more extreme 
opin ons be was not in sympathy. It might well be feared 
that I man past fifty, against whom the ingenuity of hos- 
tile partisans could rake up no accusation, must be lacking 
ia manliness of character, in decision of principle, in 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 161 

Strength of will,— that a man who was at best only tho 
representative of a party, and who yet did not fairly re- 
present even that— would fail of political, much more of 
popular support. And certainly no one ever entered upon 
office with so few resources of power in the past, and so 
many materials of weakness in the present, as Mr. Lincoln. 
Even in that half of the Union which acknowledged him 
as Tresident, there was a large and at that time danger- 
ous minority, that hardly admitted his claim to the office, 
and even in the party that elected him there was also a 
large minority that suspected him of being secretly a 
communicant with the church of Laodicea. All that ho 
did was sure to be virulently attacked as ultra by one side : 
all that he left undone, to be stigmatized as proof of luke- 
warmness and backsliding by the other. Meanwhile h«> 
was to carry on a truly colossal war by means of both ; he 
was to disengage the country from diplomatic entangle- 
ments of unprecedented peril undistui-bed by the help or 
the hinderance of either, and to win from the crowning 
dangers of his administration, in the confidence of tho 
people, the means of his safety and their own. lU has 
contrived to do it, and perhaps none of our PrcsidentB 
since Washington has stood so firm in the confidence of 
the people as he does after three years of stormy admin 
i.stration. 

" Mr. Lincoln's policy was a tentative one, and rightly 
so. He laid down no programme which must compel 
him to bo cither inconsistent or unwise— uo cast-irou 
theorem to which circumstances must be fitted as they 
rose, or else be useless to his ends. He seemed to have 
chosen Mazarin's motto, Le temps et moi. The moi, to 
be Burc, was not very prominent at first; but it has grown 
more and more so, till the world is beginning to be per- 
suaded that it stands for a character of marked individu- 
ality and capacity for affiiirs. Time was his prime-miu- 



162 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ister, and, we began to think at one period, his general- 
in-chief also. At first he was so slow that he tired out 
all those who see no evidence of progress but in blowing 
up the engine ; then he was so fast, that he took the 
Dreath away from those who think there is no getting on 
safelj while there is a spark of fire under the boilers. God 
is the only being who has time enough ; but a prudent 
man, who knows how to seize occasion, can commonly 
make a shift to find as much as ho needs. Mr. Lincoln, 
as it seems to us in reviewing his career, though we have 
Bometimes in our impatience thought otherwise, has al- 
ways waited, as a wise man should, till the right moment 
brought up all his reserves. Semper nocuit differre par- 
alls is a sound axiom, but the really efficacious man will 
also be sure to know when he is not ready, and bo firm 
Apiinst all i)ersuasion and reproach till he is. 

" One would be apt to think, from some of the criticisms 
made on Mr. Lincoln's course by those who mainly agree 
with him in principle, that the chief olyect of a statesman 
(Should be rather to proclaim his adhesion to certain doc- 
trines than to achieve their triumph by quietly accom- 
plishing his ends. In our opinion, there is no more unsafe 
politician than a conscientiously rigid doctrinaire, nothing 
more sure to end in disaster than a theoretic sclieme of 
policy that admits of no pliability for contingencies. True, 
there is a popular image of an impossible He, in whose 
plastic hands the submissive destinies of mankind become 
as wax, and to whose commanding necessity the toughest 
facts yield with the graceful pliancy of fiction ; but in real 
life we commonly find that the men who control circum- 
Btai'.ces, as it is called, are those who have learned to 
allow for the influence of their eddies, and have the nerve 
to turn them to account at the happy instant. Mr. Lin- 
coln's perilous task has been to carry a rather shackly 
raft through the rapids, making fast the unrulier logs as 



LIFE AND SEKVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 163 

he could snatch opportunity ; and the country is to be 
congratulated that he did not think it his duty to run 
straight at all hazards, but cautiously to assure himself 
with his setting-pole where the main current was, and 
keep steadily to that. lie is still in wild water, but we 
Iiave faith that his skill and sureness of eye will bring him 
out right at last. 

"A curious, and, as we think, not inapt parallel might 
be drawn between Mr. Lincoln and one of the most 
striking figures in modern history — Henry lY. of France. 
The career of the latter may be more picturesque, as that 
of a daring captain ahvaj's is ; but, in all its vicissitudes, 
there is nothing more romantic than that sudden change, 
as by a rub of Aladdin's lamp, from the attorney's oHiw 
in a country town of Illinois to the helm of a great nation 
in times like these. The analogy between the characters 
and circumstances of the two men is, in many respects, 
singularly close. Succeeding to a rebellion rather than a 
crown, Henry's chief material dependence was the Hugue- 
not party, whose doctrines sat upon him with a looseness 
distasteful certainly, if not suspicious, to the more fanati- 
cal among them. King only in name over the greater 
part of France, and with his capital barred against him, 
it yet gradually became clear to the n\ore far-sooing even 
of the Catholic party, that he was the only centre of order 
and legitimate authority round which France could re- 
organize itself. While preachers who held the divine 
right of kings made the churches of Paris ring with decla- 
mations in favor of democracy rather than submit to the 
heretic dog of a B^arnois — much as our soi-disaut Demo- 
crats have lately been preaching the divine right of 
slavery, and denouncing the heresies of the Declaration 
of Independence — Henry bore both parties in hand till he 
was convinced that only one course of action could pos- 
sibly combine his own interests and those of France 



164 LIFE AISD SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Meanwhile the Protestants believed somewLat doubtfully 
that he was theirs, the Catholics hoped somewhat doubt- 
fully that he would be theirs, and Henry himself turned 
aside remonstrance, advice, and curiosity alike with a 
jest or a proverb, (if a little high, he liked them none the 
worse,) joking continually, as his manner was. We have 
seen Mr. Lincoln contemptuously compared to Sancho 
Tanza by persons incapable of appreciating one of the 
deepest pieces of wisdom in the profoundest romance ever 
written — namely, that, while Don Quixote was incompa- 
rable in theoretic and ideal statesmanship, Sancho, with 
his stock of proverbs, the ready-money of human experi- 
ence, made the best possible practical governor. Henry 
IV. was as full of wise saws and modern instances as Mr. 
Lincoln, but beneath all this was the thoughtful, practi- 
cal, humane, and thoroughly earnest man, around whom 
the fragments of France were to gather themselves till 
she took her place again as a planet of the first mnguitude 
in the European system. In one respect Mr. Lincoln was 
more fortunate than Henry. However some may think 
him wanting in zeal, the most fanatical can find no taint 
of apostasy in any measure of his, nor can the most bitter 
charge him with being influenced by motives of personal 
interest. The leading distinction between the policies of 
the two is one of circumstances. Henry went over to 
the nation ; Mr. Lincoln has steadily drawn the natiod 
over to him. One left a united France ; the other, we 
]ioj)c and believe, will leave a re-united America. We 
leave our readers to trace the further points of difference 
and resemblance for themselves merely suggesting a gen- 
eral similarity which has often ocevn-red to us. One only 
point of melancholy interi'st we will allow ourselves to 
toucli upon. That Mr. Lincoln is not handsome nor ele- 
gant, we learn from certain English tourists who would 
consider similar revelations in regard to C^ueeu Vicii^ria 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 165 

as thoroughly American in their want of bienseance. It 
is no concern of ours, nor does it eETect his fitness for the 
high place he so worthily occupies ; but he is certainly as 
fortunate as Henry in the matter of good looks, if we 
may trust contemporary evidence. Mr. Lincoln has also 
been reproached with Americanism by some not unfriendly 
British critics ; *but, with all deference, we cannot say that 
we like him any the worse for it, or see in it any reasoa 
why he should govern Americans the less wisely. 

" The most perplexing complications that Mr. Lincoln's 
government has had to deal with have been the danger 
of rupture with the two leading commercial countries of 
Europe, and the treatment of the slavery question. In 
regard to the former, the peril may be considered as 
nearly past, and the latter has been withdrawing steadily, 
ever since the war began, from the noisy debating-ground 
of faction to the quieter region of practical solution by 
convincingness of facts and consequent advance of opinion 
which we are content to call Fate. 

" Even so long ago as when Mr. Lincoln, not yet con- 
vinced of the danger and magnitude of the crisis, was en- 
deavoring to persuade himself of Union majorities at the 
South, and to carry on a war that was half peace in the 
hope of a peace that would have been all war, — while he 
was still enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law, under some 
theory that Secession, however it might absolve States 
from their obligations, could not escheat them of their 
claims under the Constitution, and that slaveholders in 
rebellion had alone among mortals the privilege of having 
their cake and eating it at the same time, — the enemies of 
free government were striving to persuade the people 
that the war uas an Abolition crusade. To rebel with- 
out reason was proclaimed as one of the rights of man, 
while it was carefully kept out of sight that to suppress 
rebellion is the first duty of government. AH the evils 



166 LIFE AND SERVICKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that have come upon the country have been attributed to 
the Abolitionists, though it is hard to see how any party 
can become permanently powerful except in one of two 
ways, — either by the greater truth of its principles, or the 
extravagance of the party opposed to it. To fancy the 
ghip of state, riding safe at her constitutional moorings, 
suddenly engulfed by a huge kraken of Abolitionism, 
rising from unknown depths and grasping it with slimy 
tentacles, is to look at the natural history of the matter 
with the eyes of Pontoppidan. To believe that the 
leaders in the Southern treason feared any danger from 
Abolitionism, would be to deny them ordinary intelli- 
gence, though there can be little doubt that they mado 
use of it to stir the passions and excite the fears of their 
deluded accomplices. They rebelled, not because they 
thought slavery weak, but because they believed it strong 
enough, not to overthrow the government, but to get pos- 
session of it ; for it becomes daily clearer that they used 
rebellion only as a means of revolution, and if they got 
revolution, though not in the shape they looked for, is the 
American people to save them from its consequences at 
the cost of its own existence ? The election of Mr. Lin- 
coln, which it was clearly in their power to prevent had 
they wished, was the occasion merely, and not the cause, 
of their revolt. Abolitionism, till within a year or two, 
was the despised heresy of a few earnest persons, without 
political weight enough to carry the election of a parish 
constable; and their cardinal principal was disunion, be- 
cause they were convinced that within the Union the 
position of slavery was impregnable. In spite of the 
proverb^ great effects do not follow from small causes — 
that is, disproportionately small, — but from adequate 
causes acting under certain required conditions. To con- 
trast the size of the oak with that of the parent acorn, as 
if the poor seed had paid all costs from its slender strong 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 167 

box, may serve for a child's wonder ; but the real miracle 
lies in that divine league which bound all the forces of 
nature to the service of the tiny germ in fulGlling its 
destiny. Every thing has been at work for the past ten 
years in the cause of antislavery, but Garrison and 
Phillips have been far less successful propagandists than 
the slaveholders themselves, with the constantly-growing 
arrogance of their pretensions and encroachments. They 
have forced the question upon the attention of every voter 
in the Free States, by deflantly putting freedom and de- 
mocracy on the defensive. But, even after the Kansas 
outrages, there was no wide-spread desire on the part of 
the North to commit aggressions, though there was a 
growing determination to resist them. The popular 
unanimity in favor of the war three years ago was but in 
small measure the result of antislavery sentiment, far less 
of any zeal for abolition. But every month of the war, 
every movement of the allies of slavery in the Free 
States, has been making Abolitionists by the thousands. 
The masses of any people, however intelligent, are very 
little moved by abstract i)rinciples of numanity and jus- 
tice, until those principles are interpreted for them by the 
stinging commentary of some infringement upon their own 
rights, and then their instincts and passions, once aroused, 
do indeed derive an incalculable reinforcement of impulse 
and intensity from those higher ideas, those sublime tra- 
ditions, which have no motive political force till they are 
allied with a sense of immediate personal wrong or im- 
minent peril. Then at last the stars in their courses be- 
gin to fight against Siscra. Had any one doubted before 
that the rights of human nature are unitary, tliat oppres- 
sion is of one hue the world over, no matter what the 
color of the oppressed, — had any one failed to see what 
the real essence of the contest was, — the efforts of the ad- 
vocates of slavery among ourselves to throw discredit upou 



168 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tlic fundamental axioms of the Declaration of Independence 
and the radical doctrines of Christianity, could not fail to 
sharpen his eyes. This quarrel, it is plain, is not between 
Northern fanaticism and Southern institutions, but be- 
tween downright slavery and upright freedom, between 
despotism and democracy, between the Old World and 
the New. 

"The progress of three years has outstripped the ex- 
pectation of the most sanguine, and that of our arms, 
great as it undoubtedly is, is trifling in comparison with 
the advance of opinion. The great strength of slavery 
was a superstition, which is fast losing its hold on the 
public mind. When it was first proposed to raise negro 
regiments, there were many even patriotic men who felt 
as the West Saxons did at seeing their high priest hurl 
his lance again^^t the temple of their idol. They were sure 
something terrible, they knew not what, would follow. 
But the earth stood firm, the heavens gave no sign, and 
presently they joined in making a bonfire of their bugbear. 
That we should employ the material of the rebellion for its 
own destruction, seems now the merest truism. In the same 
way men's minds are growing wonted to the thought of 
emancipation ; and great as are the difficulties which must 
necessarily accompany and follow so vast a measure, we 
have no doubt that they will be successfully ovei'ccme. 
The point of interest and imixirtance is, that the feeling of 
our country in regard to slavery is no whim of sentiment, 
but a s^ettled conviction, and that the tendency of opinion 
is unmistakably and irrevocably in one direction, no Icsa 
in the Border Slave States than in the Free. The ch^.icos 
of the war, which at one time seemed against us, arc now 
greatly in our favor. The nation is more thoroughly 
united against any shameful or illusory peace than it ever 
was on any otherqncstion, and the very extent of the ter- 
ritory to be subdued, which was the most serious cause of 



LIFE AND SERVICES 0^' ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 169 

miagiving, is no longer an clpmont of strcngtli, but of dis- 
iutegraliou, to the conspifacy. The llebel leiulei's can 
make no concessions ; the country is unanimously resolved 
that the war shall be prosecuted, at whatever cost ; and if 
the war go on, will it leave slavery with any formidal)lo 
strength in the South ? and without that, need there be any 
fear of effective opposition in the North ? 

" While every day was ])ringing the people nearer to tho 
conclusion which all thinking men saw to be inevitable 
from the beginning, it was wise in Mr. Lincoln to leave 
the shaping of his policy to events. In this country, 
where the rough and ready understanding of the people 
is sure at last to bo the controlling power, a profound 
common-sense is the best genius for statesmanship. 
Hitherto the wisdom of the President's measures has 
been justified by the fact that they have always resulted 
in more firmly uniting public opinion. It is a curious 
comment on the sincerity of political professions, that the 
party calling itself Democratic should have been the last 
to recognize the real movement and tendency of the 
popular mind. The same gentlemen who two years ago 
were introducing resolutions in Congress against coercion, 
are introducing them now in favor of the war, but against 
subjugation. Next year they may be in favor of emanci- 
pation, but against abolition. It does not seem to have 
occurred to them that the one point of difference between 
a civil and a foreign war is, that in the former, one of the 
parties must by the very nature of the case be put down, 
xnd the other left in possession of the government. Un- 
les'stne country is to be divided, no compromise is possible, 
and, if one side must yield, shall it be the nation or the 
conspirators ? A government may make, and any wise 
government would make, concessions to men who have 
risen against real grievances ; but to make them in favor 
of a rebellion that had no juster cause than the personal 



170 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

ambition of a few bad men, would be to abdicate. 
Southern politicians, however, have always been so 
dexterous in drawing nice distinctions, that they may 
find some consolation inappreciable by obtuser minds in 
being coerced instead of subjugated. 

" If Mr. Lincoln continue to act with the firmness and 
prudence which have hitherto distinguished him, we think 
he has little to fear from the efforts of the opposition. 
Men without sincere convictions are hardly likely to have 
a well-defined and settled policy, and the blunders they 
have hitherto committed must make them cautious. If 
their personal hostility to the President be unabated, we 
may safely count on their leniency to the opinion of 
majorities, and the drift of public sentiment is too strong 
to be mistaken. They have at last discovered that there 
is such a thing as Country, which has a meaning for 
men's minds and a hold upon their hearts; they may 
make the further discovery, that this is a revolution that 
has been forced on us, and not merely a civil war. In 
any event, an opposition is a wholesome thing ; and wo 
are only sorry that this is not a more wholesome opposi- 
tion. 

" We believe it is the general judgment of the country 
on the acts of the present administration, that they have 
been, in the main, judicious and well-timed. The only 
doubt about some of them seems to be as to their con- 
stitutionality. It has been sometimes objected to our 
form of government, that it was faulty in having a writ- 
ten constitution which could not adapt itself to the needs 
of the time as they arose. But we think it rather a 
theoretic than a practical objection ; for in point of 
fact there has been hardly a leading measure of any 
administration that has not been attacked as uncon- 
Btitutional, and which was not carried nevertheless. 
Purchase of Louisiana, Embargo, Removal of the I)e- 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 171 

posits, Annexation of Texas, not to speak of others loss 
important, — on the unconstitutionality of all these, power- 
ful parties have appealed to the country, and invariably 
the decision has been against them. The will of the 
people for the time being has always carried it. In tlio 
present instance, we purposely refrain from any allusion 
to the moral aspects of the question. We prefer to leave 
the issue to experience and common-sense. lias any sane 
man ever doubted on which side the chances were in this 
contest? Can any sane man who has watched the steady 
advances of opinion, forced onward slowly by the im- 
mitigable logic of facts, doubt what the decision of the 
people will be in this matter ? The Southern conspira- 
tors have played a desperate stake, and, if they bad won, 
would have bent the whole policy of the country to the 
interests of slavery. Filibustering would have been 
nationalized, and the slave-trade re-established as the most 
beneficent form of missionary enterprise. But if they 
lose ? They have, of their own choice, put the chance 
into our hands of making this continent the empire of a 
great homogeneous population, substantially one in race, 
language, and religion, — the most prosperous and power- 
ful of nations. Is there a doubt what the decision of a 
victorious people will be ? If we w.ere base enough to 
decline the great commission whicli Destiny lays on us, 
should we not deserve to be ranked with those dastards 
whom the stern Florentine condemns as hateful alike to 
God and God's enemies ? 

"We would not be understood as speaking lightly of the 
respect due to constitutional forms, all the more essential 
under a government like ours and in times like these. But 
where undue respect for the form will lose us the substance, 
and where the substance, as in this case, is nothing loss 
than the country itself, to be over-scrupulous would be 
unwise. Who are most tender in their solicitude that we 



172 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-. 

keep sacred the letter of the law, in order that its spiri* 
may not keep us alive ? Mr. Jefferson Davis and those 
who, in the Free Slates, would have been his associates, 
but must content themselves with being bis political 
guerilleros. If Davis had succeeded, would he have had 
any scruples of constitutional delicacy ? And if he has 
not succeeded, is it not mainly owing to measures which 
his disappointed partisans denounce as unconstitutional ? 

"We cannot bring ourselves to think that Mr. Lincoln 
nas done any thing that would furnish a precedent dan- 
gerous to oar liberties, or in any way overstepped the 
just limits of his constitutional discretion. If his course 
has been unusual, it was because the danger was equally 
so. It cannot be so truly said that he has strained his 
prerogative, as that the imperious necessity has exercised 
its own. Surel}"- the framers of the Constitution never 
dreamed that they were making a strait waistcoat, in 
which the nation was to lie helpless while traitors were 
left free to do their will. In times like these, men seldom 
settle precisely the principles on which they shall act, but 
rather adjust those on which they have acted to the lines 
of precedent as well as they can after the event. This is 
what the English Parliament did in the Act of Settlement. 
Congress, after all, will only be called on for the official 
draft of an enactment, the terms of which have been 
already decided by agencies beyond their control. Even 
while they are debating, the current is sweeping them 
onward toward new relations of policy. At worst, a new 
precedent is pretty sure of pardon, if it successfully meet 
a new occasion. It is a harmless pleasantry to call Mr. 
Lincoln ' Abraham the First,' — we remember when a 
similar title was applied to President Jackson ; and it 
will not be easy, we suspect, to persuade a people who 
have more liberty than they know what to do with, that 
they are the victims of despotic tyianny. 



LIFE AND SEKVICKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 173 

" Mr. Lincoln probably thought it more convenient, to 
say the least, to have a country left without a constitution, 
than a constitution without a country. We have no doubt 
we shall save both ; for if we take care of the one, the 
other will take care of itself. Sensible men, and it is the 
sensible men in any country who at last shape its policy, 
will be apt to doubt whether it is true conservatism, after 
the fire is got under, to insist on keeping up the flaw in 
the chimney by which it made its way into the house. 
Radicalism may be a very dangerous thing, and so is 
calomel, but not when it is the only means of saving the 
life of the patient. Names are of great influence in ordi- 
nary times, when they are backed by the vis inertice of 
life-long prejudice, but they have little power in com- 
parison with a sense of interest ; and though, in peaceful 
times, it may be highly respectable to be conservative 
merely for the sake of being so, though without very 
clear notions of any thing in particular to be conserved, 
what we want now is the prompt decision that will not 
hesitate between the bale of silk and the ship when a leak 
is to be stopped. If we succeed in saving the great land' 
marks of freedom, there will be no difficulty in settling our 
constitutional boundaries again. We have no sympathy 
to spare for the pretended anxieties of men who, only two 
years gone, were willing that Jefferson Davis should 
break all the ten commandments together, and would 
now impeach Mr. Lincoln for a scratch on the surface of 
the tables where they are engraved." 

As soon as the publication was received and read by 
the President, he sent to the publishers the following 
letter : 

" ExEcuTivK Mansion, Washin«ton, January \&tli, 18C4. 
"Messrs. Crosby Sj- Nichols : 

" Gentlemen : The number for this month and year of the 
North American Review was duly received and for which please 
accept my thanks. Of course I am not the most impartial 
II 



174 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

judge ; yet, with due allowance for this, I venture to hope that 
the article entitled ' The President's Policy ' will be of value 
to the country. I fear I am not quite worthy of all which is 
therein kindly said of me personally. 

" The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 
252, (which in this book is on page 165,) I could wish to be not 
exactly as it is. In what is there expressed the writer has not 
correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that seces- 
sion could absolve States or people from their obligations. Pre- 
cisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural address; and it 
was because of my belief in the continuation of those oblijaHms 
that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal ri(ihts of 
those citizens who remained individually innocent of treason or 
rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call atten- 
tion to this point. 

" Yours respectfully, 

"A. Lincoln." 

The sentence referred to by Mr. Lincoln, is as follows : 
" Even so long ago as when Mr. Lincoln, not yet con- 
vinced of the danger and magnitude of the crisis, was 
endeavoring to persuade himself of Union majorities at 
the South, and to carry on a war that was half peace, in 
the hope of a peace that would have been all war, while 
he was still enforcing the Fugitive Slave law, under 
some theory that secession, however it might absolve 
States from their obligations, could not escheat them of 
their claims under the constitution, and that slaveholders 
in rebellion had alone among mortals, the privilege of 
having their cake and eating it at the same time, — the 
enemies of free government were striving to persuade the 
people that the war was an abolition crusade. To rebel 
without reason was proclaimed as one of the rights of man, 
while it was carefully kept out of sight that to suppress 
rebellion is the first duty of government." 

RECENT ADDRESSES OP MR. LINCOLN. 

On the night of the eighteenth of March, 1864, at the 
olose of the successful fair held in the Patent Office at 
Washington, Mr. Lincoln spoke as follows : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : — I appear, to say but a word. This 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 175 

extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon «ill 
classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it 
has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life and, 
while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life 
at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The high- 
est merit, then, is due to the soldier. 

'In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have 
manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in forme! 
wars; and among these manifestations nothing has been moie 
remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers 
and their families. And the chief agents in these fairs are the 
women of America. I am not accustomed to the use of th3 
language of eulogy ; I have never studied the art of paying 
compliments to women ; but I must say that, if all that has been 
said by orators and poets, since the creation of the world, in 
praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would 
not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will 
close by saying, Cod bless the women of America!" (Great 
p.pplause.) 

Three days later, a committee appoiuted by the Woik- 
ingmen's Democratic Republican Association of New 
York waited on the President, and presented him with an 
address infoi-miug him that he had been elected a member 
of that organization. After the chairman had stated the 
object of the visit, Mr. Lincoln made the following reply : 

"Gentlemen of the Committee : — The honorary membership in 
your Association so generously tendered is gratefully accepted 
You comprehend, as your address shows, that the existing re 
bellion means more and tends to more than the perpetuation of 
African slavery — that it ;b, in fact, a war upon the rights of all 
working people. Partly to show that the view has not ost;a|)ed 
my attention, and partly that I cannot better express myself, I 
read a passage from the message to Congress in December, 18G1: 

" ' It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if 
not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular Gov- 
ernment — the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of thia 
is found in the most grave and maturely-considered public docu- 
ments, ae well as in the general tone of the insurgents. In those 
documents we find the abridgement of the existing right of suf- 
frage, and the denial to the people of all right to participate in 
the selection of public ofiBcers, except the legislative body, boldly 
advocated with labored arguments, to prore that large control 
of the people in government is the source of all political evil. 
Monarchy is sometimes hinted at as a possible retuge from the 
power of the people. In my present poF-lIon, I could scarcely 



176 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

be justified were I to omit raising my voice against this approach 
of returning despotism. 

" ' It is not needed or fitting here that a general argument 
should be made in favor of popular institutions ; but there is one 
point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to 
•which I ask a Ijrief attention. It is the effort to place capital, 
on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of 
tbe Government. It is assumed that labor is available only in 
connection with capital ; that nobody labors unless somebody 
else owning capital somehow, by use of it, induces him to labor. 

" ' This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that 
capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their 
own consent, or buy them and drive them to it without their 
consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded 
that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. 
And, farther, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer 
is fixed in that condition for life. Now there is no such relation 
between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such 
thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a 
hired laborer. Both of these assumptions are false, and all infer- 
ences from them are groundless. 

"'Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is 
only the fruit of labor, and never could have existed if labor had 
not first existed. Labor is the support of capital, and deserves 
much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which 
are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied 
that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between 
labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is iu 
assuming that the whole labor of a community exists within that 
relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor 
themselves, and with that capital hire or buy another few to 
labor for them. 

"'A large majoiity belong to neither class — neither work 
for others nor have others working for them. In most of the 
Southern States a majority of the whole people, of all colors, 
are neither slaves nor masters, while, in the Northern States, a 
large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with their 
families — wives, sous, and daughters — work for themselves on 
their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole 
product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the 
one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is 
not forgotten that a considerable number ef persons mingle their 
own labor with capital — ^that is, they labor with their own hands 
And also buy or hire others to labor for them ; but this is only a 
mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed 
by the existence of this mixed class. 

" 'Again. As has already been said, there is not of necessity 
any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that con- 
dition for jife. Many independent men everywhere in thes* 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 177 

States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. The 
prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a while, 
saves a surplus with which to buy tools or lands for himself, then 
labors on his own account another while, and at length hires 
another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and gener- 
ous, and prosperous system which opens the way to all — gives 
hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improve- 
meut to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than 
those who toil up from poverty — none less inclined to take or 
touch aught with which they have not honestly earned. Let 
them beware of surrendering a political power which they already 
possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close 
the door of advancement against such as they, and to. fix new 
disabilities and burdens upon them till all of liberty shall be 
lost.' 

" The views then expressed remain unchanged — nor have I 
much to add. None are so deeply interested to resist the 
present rebellion as the working people. Let them beware of 
prejudices working disunion and hostility among themselves. 
The most notable feature of a disturbance in your city last sum- 
mer was the hanging of some working people by other working 
people. It should never be so. The strongest bond of human 
sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting 
all working people, of all nations, tongues, and kindreds. Nor 
should this lead to a war upon property or the owners of prop- 
erty. Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; 
is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, 
shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encourage- 
ment to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless 
pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and 
Duild one for himself; thus, by example, assuring that his own 
shall be safe from violence when built." 

ABKAHAM LINCOLN THE CHOICE OP THE 
PEOPLE FOR ANOTHER TERM. 

Within the past few mouths, a movement has been in 
progress throughout the North and West, which can but 
be as gratifying to Abraham Lincoln as it is pleasing to 
the great mass of the loyal voters of the country. 

No President ever encountered the same difficulties 
which have met the present incumbent of the " White 
House" at every step he has taken since the day of hi« 
inauguration. The traitors in the South have naturally 
opposed every important order be has issued ; have ridi- 



178 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-. 

culed every proclamation he has promulgated ; have criti- 
cised and sneered at every message he has written ; and 
have vilified und maligned the character of their author. 
This was to be expected ; but there have been traitors at 
the North who have been no less bitter, no less strenuous 
in their opposition ; but, under the guidance of Diviue 
Providence, he has been able to repel the assaults of both 
of these classes of unprincipled advocates of treason ; and, 
strong in his holy purpose to rescue the countiy from the 
machinations of its enemies, he has continued steadfast in 
the path of official duty. He may have made some mis- 
takes, but they have been few, and it must be remembered 
that even those which have been more particularly re- 
ferred to by his opponents were caused, not by ignorance, 
but by the exigencies of the occasion, which compelled 
him to give an important answer, or issue an important 
order, without being allowed the time for reflection which 
the magnitude of the subject demanded. 

The importance, indeed the absolute necessity, of re- 
taining Mr. Lincoln in his present exalted position, is now 
the popular belief, and from every loyal Commonwealth 
come tidings, pronouncing in language which cannot be 
mistaken, that he alone is deemed the proper person to 
rescue the country from its present danger. The Legis- 
latures of fifteen States have declared that he is their 
choice and the choice of their constituents. Union 
Leagues, Conventions, and public assemblies of different 
political characters, have indorsed the decision of their 
legislative bodies ; and the loyal people almost unani- 
cr.ouflly approve of the action which has again brought 
Mr. Lincoln prominently forward as the best and only 
man to nominate and elect to the Presidency. He has 
been tried, and not found wanting, and no better return 
for the perils encountered, the labors accomplished, and 
the benefits derived to the country, could be ofi'ered, than 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 179 

his re-nomination and re-election, both of which are now 
almost as certain as that the Union Convention will assem- 
ble at Baltimore in June next, and that the ele«(;tion will 
be held in November. Maine, New Hampshire, Connec- 
ticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mary- 
land, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- 
sota, Kansas, and California, have spoken, and, at the 
advent of the summer solstice, the other States will re- 
echo the popular sentiments, as so emphatically expressed 
by their sister Commonwealths. He is no longer the rep- 
resentative of any particular political party, but cornea 
before the loyal voters of the country as an indefatigable, 
incorruptible, public servant, whose multiform and per- 
plexing duties have been faithfully performed, and who 
has no other ambition than to so administer the affairs of 
the nation as will be most conducive to its welfare. 
Throughout his Presidential career he has never failed 
to prove himself equal to any emergency that might oc- 
cur. To use the words of a patriotic Philadelphian, even 
in the darkest hour of our struggle, when every thing 
seemed . lost, and the feeling of despondency with regard 
to the future was so great that those who had been con- 
fident before lost all hope, he who was at the helm of 
Government still maintained his self-command and a firm 
reliance in an overruling Providence, which, in due time, 
would order all things aright. Coolness, confidence, and 
courage, are only valuable when they are needed ; and he 
who has passed through ordeals in which the possession 
of such qualities have been manifested, in no ordinary de- 
gree, obtains a hold on the confidence of the world which 
but few are fortunate enough to secure ; men of extraor- 
dinary abilities, lacking these qualities, have, on great and 
trying occasions, too often demonstrated their incapacity 
for supreme command, like that which belongs to the head 
of a great government. Considerations such as these will 



180 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

make the people loth to part with one who, in the hour of 
trial, has proved himself equal to the emergency. 

As an evidence of the sentiment to which we have re- 
ferred, we publish the following resolutions, unanimously 
adopted by the Union League of Philadelphia, on the 
eleventh of January, 1864 : 

" Whereas, The skill, courage, fidelity and integrity with 
which, in a period of unparalleled trial, Abraham Lincoln has 
conducted the administration of the National Government, have 
won for him the highest esteem and the most affectionate regard 
of his grateful countrymen ; 

"And tvhereas, The confidence which all loyal men repose in 
his honesty, his wisdom and his patriotism, should be proclaimed 
on every suitable occasion, in order that his hands may be 
strengthened for the important work he has yet to perform ; 

"And whereas, The Union League of Philadelphia, composed 
as it is, of those who, having formerly belonged to various 
parties, in this juncture recognize no party but their country ; 
and representing, as it does, all the industrial, mechanical, man- 
ufacturing, commercial, financial, and professional interests 
of the city, is especially qualified to give, in this behalf, an 
unbiased and authentic utterance to the public sentiment; 
therefore, 

"Resolved, That to the prudence, sagacity, comprehension 
and perseverance of Mr. Lincoln, under the guidance of a benign 
Providence, the nation is more indebted for the grand results of 
the war, which southern rebels have wickedly waged against 
liberty and the Union, than to any other single instrumentality; 
and that he is justly entitled to whatever reward it is in the 
power of the nation to bestow. 

"Resolved, That we cordially approve of the policy which 
Mr. Lincoln has adopted and pursued, as well the principles he 
haa announced as the acts he has performed, and that we shall 
continue to give an earnest and energetic support to the doc- 
trines and measures by which his administration has thus far 
been directed and illustrated. 

"Resolved, That as Mr. Lincoln has had to endure the largest 
share of the labor required to suppress the rebellion, now 
rapidly verging to its close, he should also enjoy the largest 
share of the honors which await those who have contended for 
the right ; and as, in all respects, he has shown pre-eminent 
ability in fulfilling the requirements of his great ofiBce, we recog- 
nize with pleasure the unmistakable indications of the popular 
will in all the loyal States, and heartily join with our fellow- 
citizens, without any distinction of party, here and elsewhere, in 
presenting him as the People's candidate for the Presidency at 
the approaching election. 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 181 

"Resolved, That a Committee of Seventy-sis be appointed, 
whose duty it shall be to promote the object now proposed, by 
correspondence with other loyal organizations, by stimulating 
the expression of public opinion, and by whatever additional 
modes shall, in their judgment, seem best adapted to the end ; 
and that this Committee have power to supply vacancies in 
their own body and to increase their numbers at their own dis- 
cretion. 

'■'Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings, properly en- 
grossed and attested, be forwarded to President Lincoln ; and 
that they also be published in the loyal newspapers." 

GENEBAL GRANT MADE A LIEUTENANT- 
GENERAL. 

On the 2d of March, 1864, President Lincoln approved 
a bill passed by Congress on the 2Gth of February, revi- 
Ting the grade of Lieutenant-Geueral, and the same day be 
nominated for that high office Major-General Grant, the 
hero of Vicksburg, and on the same day the Senate unan- 
imously confirmed the nomination. On the 9th of March, 
General Grant, being upon ofiicial business at Washington, 
was invited to the White House, where the President, 
handing him his commission, addressed him as follows : 

" General Grant : — The expression of the nation's approba- 
tion of what you have already done, and its reliance on you for 
what remains to do in the existing great struggle, is now pre- 
sented with this commission, constituting you Ldeutenant- Gen- 
eral of the Army of the United States. 

" With this high honor devolves on you an additional respon- 
Bibdity. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it 
will sustain you. I scarcely need add, that with what I here 
speak for the country, goes my own hearty personal concur- 
rence." 

General Grant accepted the commission with character- 
istic modesty, responding briefly and appropriately to the 
remarks of the President. 

A VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OP THE WAR. 

In May, 1864, the President had approved the plans of 
Lieutenant-General Grant ; and the grand combinations 
of the latter, looking to the breaking up of the Cuiift derate 



182 LIFE A.ND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

power, and the fall of Richmond, were put in motion, 
Sherman was at work in the South-west, and after taking 
and destroying Atlanta, he designed marching directly 
through the heart of Georgia, making Savannah his first 
objective point ; and then, striking northward, he M'as to 
compel the evacuation of Columbia, Charleston, and Wil- 
mington, and co-operate with General Grant in the 
conquest of the rebel capital. Thomas was left in the 
South-west to check, and if possible, destroy Hood and 
Johnston ; while Grant, aided by the splendid genius and 
fighting qualities of Meade, Sheridan, and Hancock, were 
operating in the immediate vicinity of Richmond. The 
plans were finally all carried out almost to the letter, and 
General Grant telegraphed to the President, in May, that 
he " proposed to fight it out on this line if it took all sum- 
mer." These vast military operations, aud the confidence 
of the great mass of the people in the fidelity of the Pres- 
ident, and in the skill of his generals, promoted a^great 
degree of confidence in the speedy ending of the war, with 
an unconditional restoration of the authority of the Union. 

MR. LINCOLN IS RE-NOMINATED FOR THE 
PRESIDENCY. 

On the 7th of June, 18G4, the National Union Conven 
tion met at Baltimore. The re-nomination of Mr. Lincoln 
for President of the United States was clearly foreshad- 
owed, and the formal naming of him as the choice of the 
people for a second term in his high office, was looked for 
as a matter of course. He was re-nominated by acclama- 
tion, and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who, like him- 
self, was a self-made man, was nominated for the "Vice- 
]*residency. The platform of principles adopted by the 
convention was brief and pithy. We transfer some per- 
tinent extracts to our pages- 



I 



LlFis. A^TD SKRVICICS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 183 

"i?esoZuerf, That it is the highest duty of every American citi- 
zen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the 
Union and the paramount authority of the Constitution and 
laws of the United States ; and that, laying aside all differences 
of political opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated 
b5 a common sentiment, and aiming at a common object, to do 
every thing in our power to aid the Government in quelling by 
force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and 
In bringing to the punishment due to their crimes, the rebels 
and traitors arrayed against it. 

'^Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States not to compromise with rebels, 
nor to offer any terms of peace except such as may be based 
upon an ' unconditional surrender' of their hostility and a re 
turn to their just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, and that we call upon the Government to main- 
tain this position and to prosecute the war with the utmost 
possible vigor to the complete suppression of the Rebellion, in 
full reliance upon the self-sacrifice, the patriotism, the heroic 
valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to their 
country and its free institutions. 

"Resolved, That, as Slavery was the cause, and now constitutes 
the strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be always and 
everywhere hostile to the principles of republican government, 
justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete 
extirpation from the soil of the republic ; and that we uphold 
and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Govern- 
ment, in its own defence, has aimed a death-blow at this gigan- 
tic evil. We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment 
to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity 
with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the 
existence of Slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the 
United States. 

"Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wis 
dom, the unselfish patriotism, and unswerving fidelity to the 
Constitution and the principles of American liberty, with which 
Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of un- 
paralleled difBculty, the great duties and responsibilities of the 
presidential ofiSce ; that we approve and indorse, as demanded 
by the emergency, and essential to the preservation of the 
nation, and as within the Constitution, the measures and acts 
which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open and 
secret foes ; that we approve especially the Proclamation of 
riinancipation, and the employment as Union soldiers of i:2en 
heretofore held in Slavery ; and that we have full confidence in 
his determination to carry these and all other constitutional 
measures essential to the salvation of the country into full and 
complete effect." / 



184 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

On the 29th of August of the same year, the Democratic 
Convention met at Chicago, and nominated George B. 
McClellan and George H. Pendleton as its banner bearers. 
General McClellan being named for the Presidency ana 
Mr. Pendleton for the Yice-presidency. The platform of 
the party, as laid down by this convention, set forth, 
among other things, the following : 

"Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as 
the sense of tlie American people, that after four years of fail- 
ure? to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during 
which, under the pretence of a military necessity of a war 
power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has 
been disregarded in every part, and pubhc liberty and private 
right alike trodden down, and the miiterial prosperity of the 
countiy essentially impaired ; justice, humanity, liberty, and tlie 
public welfare, demand that immediate efforts be made for a 
cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate Convention 
of all the States, or other peaceable means to the end that at 
the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the 
basis of the Federal Union of the States." 

General McClellan, in his letter of acceptance to the 
committee appointed by the Convention to notify him of 
his nomination, virtually ignored the portion of the plat- 
form given above, and he urged a vigorous prosecution of 
the war. Much dissatisfaction in the Democratic party 
grew out of the differences between the sentiments ex- 
pressed by the platform and those of the principal candi- 
date placed upon it, and for a time it seemed as though 
the party would be wrecked in advance upon the rock of 
these differences. Some of the leading peace men of the 
party refused to support General McClellan, while the 
War democracy denounced the platform in unmeasured 
terras. 

To use an expression of General McClellan's, the cam- 
paign was " short, sharp, and decisive," and the candidates 
of both parties came in for a liberal share of abusu and 
ridiciile. 



LIFE AND SERVICHS OF ABIIAIIAM LINCOLN. ISo 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN VT^^JTS PHILADELPHIA. 

A sei'ies of raouster fairs was held, in 1864, in the prin- 
cipal cities of the Union, for the purpose of aiding the funds 
of the United States Sanitary Commission. Philadelphia 
bold her great fair in June, and' on the sixteenth of the 
moath, the President and Mrs. Lincoln, paid a visit to the 
fair buildings, in Logan square. There was a huge crowd 
present for the purpose of gazing upon the features of their 
beloved Chief Magistrate. After a collation had been 
partaken of, Mr. Lincoln made a characteristic address. 
In speaking of the war, he said : 

" War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its 
magnitude and its duration, is one of the most terrible. It has 
deranged business, totally in many localities, and partially in all 
localities. It has destroyed property, and ruined homes ; it has 
produced a national debt and taxation unprecedented, at least 
in this country. It has carried mourning to almost every home, 
until it can almost be said that the ' heavens are hung in black.' 
********* 

" It is a pertinent question, often asked in the mind pri- 
vately, and from one to the other, ' when is the war to end ?' 
Surely I feel as deep an interest in this question as any other 
can, but I do not wish to name a day, or month, or a year when 
it is to end. I do not wish to run any risk of seeing the time 
come, without our being ready for the end, and for fear of dis- 
appointment because the time had come, and not the end. We 
accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war 
will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it 
never will until that time. [G-reat cheering.] Speaking of the 
present campaign, Gen. Grant is reported to have said, 'I am go- 
ing through on this line if it takes all summer !' [Cheers.] 
This war has taken three years ; it was begun, or accepted, upon 
the line of restoring the national authority over the whole na- 
tional domain — and for the xVmerican people, as far as my know- 
ledge enables me to speak, I say, we are going thi'ough on this 
line it" it takes three years more. [Cheers.] My friends, I did nut 
knr w but that I might be called upon to say a few words before 
I got away from here, but I did not know it was coming just 
here. [Tjaughter.] I have never been in the habit of making 
predictions in regard to the war, but I am almost tempted to 
make one. If I were to hazard it, it is this : That Gr£.nt is this 
evemng. with Gen. Meade and Gen. Hancock, of Pennsylvania, 
and the brave officers and soldiers with him, in a position i'niui 



186 LIP^E AXI) SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

■whence ho will never be dislodged until Richmond is taken, 
[lond cheering], and I have but one single proposition to put 
now, and peihaps I can best put it in the form of an interroga- 
tory. If I shall discover that Gen. Grant, and the noble ofiicers 
and men under him, can be greatly facilitated in their work by a 
sudden pouring forward of men and assistance, will you give 
them to me? [Cries of 'Yes!'] Then, 1 say, stand ready, 
for ] am waiting for the chance. [Laughter and choers.] 1 
Ih'Ank you, gentlemen." 

The hint given by the President in his speech, was un- 
dtr.stood when a call was made the following mouth foi 
500,000 more men. 

WASHINGTON THREATENED. 

Towards the middle of July, 1864, rebel raiders, under 
command of the traitor Breckinridge, audaciously threat- 
ened Washington. They approached as near the capital 
as Tenallytown, burned the residence of Postmaster Blair, 
at Silver Springs, destroyed passenger trains on the rail- 
road between Baltimore and the Susquehanna, and burnt 
a large part of Chambersburg. President Lincoln re- 
mained placidly in Washington during this exciting period, 

"TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN." 

While these stirring events were in progress near the 
national capital, representations were made to President 
Lincoln that certain parties, who professed to represent 
the rebel government, were at the Clifton House, at 
Niagara Falls, and anxious to enter into negotiations with 
a view to the restoration of peace. Clement C. Clay, 
Beverly Tucker, and George N. Sanders were the active 
agents of the South in this business, and they succeeded 
in persuading Mr. Horace Greeley that much good would 
come of a conference. The project was doubtless a trick 
to induce Mr. Lincoln to recognize the Southern Con- 
federacy, and to trap him into a betrayal of bis plans. 
But the following manifesto issued by him avcrturned all 
tho.se hopes . 



LIFE AND SEKVIGE3 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 187 

-Executive Ma.ion, Washington, July 18 \^U.-Towhom 
it ma^roZern- Any proposition ^vliich embraces the restora- 

rontrol the armies now at war ag.amst the Un ted btates s^ui 
be rer-eivcd and considered by the Execiitive Uoverrmenl of 
fhauit'd States, and will be ^«\by ^^^^ .fXereJf^.tT, 
Bubstantial and collateral points, and ^he bearers tl^reo^ball 
have safe conduct both ways. Abraham Lincoln. 

Mr Clay and Mr. Ilolcombe, who were among 
the chief plenipotentiaries of Jefferson Davis, took high 
offence at the tone and language of this paper, and they 
responded to it in a tone of ill temper that evinced their 
bitter disappointment at the failure of the trap set for the 
feet of Mr. Lincoln. Their complaints had no other effect 
than to make their authors ridiculous in the sight of the 

world. 

THE FALL OP ATLANTA. 

In the month of September, 1864, intelligence arrived of 
the fall of Atlanta, and the President appointed a day of 
Thanksgiving, for the success of an event that none who 
were not in the secrets of the administration could have 
imagined the importance of at that time. 

MR. LINCOLN IS RE-ELECTED. 
The Presidential election took place upon the eighth of 
November, 1864, and it resulted in the triumph of Mr. Lin- 
coln in every loyal State except Kentucky, New Jersey and 
Delaware. In some of the States, their soldiers in the 
field were allowed to vote, and the military vote was 
almost invariably cast for Lincoln and Johnson. The 
official returns for the entire vote polled summed up 
4,034,189. Of these Mr. Lincoln received 2,223,035, 
and McClellan received 1,811,754, leaving a majority of 
411,281 on the popular vote. Mr. Lincoln was elected 
by a plurality in 1860. In 1864 his majority was decided 
and unmistakable. 

This result was considered a full cndorsemei^t of the 



188 LIFE AND SilRVICES 07 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

policy of Mr. Lincoln, and the war was more vigorously 
prosecuted from this time, many of its opponents being 
at least silenced, if they were not convinced. 

MR. LINCOLN MAKES A SPEECH UPON HIS 
ELECTION. 

At a late hour on the night of the election, the Frcsi- 

dent was serenaded by a club of Pennsylvanians, who 

notified him of the fact of his being the choice of the 

people for a second term. He responded as follows : 

"Friends and Fellow-Citizens: Even before I had been in- 
formed by you that this compliment was paid me by loyiil 
citizens of Pennsylvania friendly to me, I bad inferred that you 
were of that portion of ray countrymen who tbinlc that tlie 
beat interests of the nation are to be subserved by the support 
of the present administration. I do not pretend to say that 
you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of 
the country ; but I do believe, and I trust without personal in- 
terest, that the welfare of the country does require that such 
support and endorsement be given. I earnestly believe that 
the consequences of this day's work, if it be as you assume, 
and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage if 
not to the very salvation of the country. I cannot, at this 
hour, say what lias been the result of the election, but what- 
ever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion : that 
all who have labored to-day in be^xulf of the Union organization, 
have wrought for the best interest of their country and the 
world, not only for the present but for all future ages. / am 
thankful to God for this approval of the people; but tvhile 
deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I 
knoiv my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of per- 
sonal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one op- 
posed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, 
but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the 
peuple's resolution to stand by free government and the rights 
of humanity 

LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF MR. LINCOLN. 

On the sixth of December, ISfit, Mr. Ijincoln sent into 
Congress his last annual Message. After dwelling at 
length upon our foreign relations, the state of the country, 
and the results of the election, which had at once demon- 
Btraied the strength of the people and their devotion to 
tlie cause of the Union, he said : 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 189 

" The public purpose to establish and maintain the national 
authority, is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. 
The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On 
careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to 
me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader 
could result in any good. lie would accept nothing short of 
severance of the Union — precisely what we will not and cannot 
give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft- 
repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us 
no excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily ro- 
accept the Union. We cannot voluntarily yield it. Between 
him and us the issue is distinct, single and inflexible. It is an 
issue which can only be tried by war, and decided by victory. 
If we yield we are beaten. If the Southern people fail him, he 
is beaten. Either way, it would be the victory and defeat fol- 
lowing war. What is true, however, of him who heads the 
insurgent cause, is not necessarily true of those who follow. 
Although he cannot re-accept the Union, they can. * * * * 
In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the 
National authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only 
indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the 
government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I 
repeat the declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in 
my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify 
the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I, retiTrn to slavery 
any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or 
by any of the acts of Congress. If the people should, by 
whatever mode or means, make it an Execut.ve duty to re- 
enslave such persons, another, and not I, must bte their instru- 
ment to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I 
mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the 
government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of thodQ 
who began it." 

MORE TROOPS WANTED. 
Oq the 19th of December, 1864, a call was made for 
300,000 more men to fiuish up the great work on hand in 
the field. 

MR. LINCOLN HAS AN INTERVIEW WITH 
REBEL COMMISSIONERS. 

lu the early part of Feln-uary, 1865, application was 
made to the National Government for permission for 
Messrs. A. H. Stephens of Georgia, E,. M. T. Hunter of 
Virginia, and J. A. Campbell of Alabama, tc pass through 
the Union lines as quasi commissioners fron\ the rebel 
12 



190 LIFE AlkD SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

government to treat for peace. Permission was granted, 
with the understanding that the parties named were not 
to be allowed to land. This determination upon the part 
of the Federal authorities caused much annoyance to the 
rebel agents, as they made no secret of their desire to 
visit Washington. Mr. Seward met the distinguished 
rebels named above, at Fortress Monroe. The Secretary 
of State telegraphed for the President, and Mr. Lincoln 
at once repaired to that point, where an interview was 
had on board the steamer River Queen. 

The conference lasted four hours, and was perfectly 
friendly and good-tempered throughout. Not a word was 
said on either side indicating any but amicable sentiments. 
On our side the conversation was mainly conducted by the 
President ; on theirs by Mr. Hunter, Mr. Stephens occa- 
sionally taking part. The rebel commissioners said 
nothing whatever of their personal views or wishes, but 
spoke solely and exclusively for their government, and, at 
the outset and throughout the conference, declared their 
entire lack of authority to make, receive, or consider any 
proposition whatever looking toward a close of the war, 
except on the basis of a recognition of the independence 
of the Confederate States as a preliminary condition. The 
President presented the subject to them in every conceiva- 
ble form, suggesting the most liberal and considerate mod- 
ification of whatever, in the existing legislation and action 
of the United States Government, might be regarded as 
specially hostile to the rights and interests, or wounding 
to the pride of the Southern people — but in no single par- 
ticular could he induce them to swerve for a moment from 
their demand for recognition. They did not present this 
conspicuously as resting on their own convictions of 
wishes, but as the condition which their government had 
made absolutely indispensable to any negotiations or dis- 
cussions whatever concerning peace. 



LIFE AXD SKRVICKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 191 

President Lincoln, on the other hand, informed them, 
at every point, that such recognition was utterly and 
totally out of the question ; that the United States could 
stop the war and arrest, even temporarily, the movement 
of its armies, only on the condition precedent, that the 
authority of the National Government should be recog- 
nized and obeyed over the whole territory of the United 
States. This point conceded, he assured them that upon 
every other matter of difference they would be treated 
with the utmost liberality ; but without that recognition 
the war must and would go on. 

All the conversation which took place between the re- 
spective parties came back to, and turned upon, this radical 
and irreconcilable diffei'ence. Neither side could be 
swerved a hair's breadth from its position. And, there- 
fore, the attempt at negotiation was an utter failure. 
Upon separating, it was distinctly understood and explic- 
itly stated that the attitude and action of each Govern- 
ment was to be precisely what it would have been if this 
interview had never taken place. So this negotiation 
went for nought, and President Lincoln and Mr. Seward 
returned to Washington ; while the discomfited rebel 
commissioners made the best of their way back to Rich- 
mond. 

IS INAUGURATED PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES FOR A SECOND TERM. 

On the fourth of March, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was 
re-inaugurated President of the United States for a second 
term of four years, the demonstrations on the occasion being 
of the most imposing description. Arriving at the East 
])orlico of the Capitol, the President, President-elect, took 
a seat provided for him, and the other distinguished persons 
filling the whole vast platform had places assigned to them. 
The President, President-elect, then advanced to the front. 



192 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLNT. 

and Chief Justice Chase administered the oath of office, 
which the President pronounced in a clear, solemn voice 
as follows : — 

" I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the oSic« 
of the President of the United States, and will, to the best of 
my ability, protect and defend the Constitution of the United 
States " 

The President then delivered his Inaugural Address, as 
follows ; 

INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

Fellow- Countrymen — At this second appearing to take the 
oath of the Presidential ofiBce, there is less occasion for an ex- 
tended address than there was at the first. Then a statement 
somewLat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and 
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
public declarations have been constantly called forth on every 
point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the 
attention and engrosses the energy of the nation, little that is 
new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which 
all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to 
myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging 
to all. 

With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is 
ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years 
ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil 
war. All dreaded it. All sought to avert it. 

While the Inaugural Address was being delivered from this 
place, devoted altogether to the saving of the Union without 
war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it 
without war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the 
effects by negotiation. 

Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make 
war rather than let the nation survive ; and the other would 
accept war rather than perish — and the war came. One-eighth 
of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed 
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part 
of it. 

These slaves constituted a peculiar and beneficial interest. 
All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war 
To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the object 
for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, 
while the Government claimed no right to do more than to 
restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party ex- 
pected for the war the magnitude nor the duration which it has 
already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 193 

conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should 
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less 
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and 
pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the 
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a 
just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of 
ether men's faces. 

But let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of 
both could not be answered ; that of neither has been answeied 
fully. The Almighty has His own purpo;jes. " Woe unto th? 
world beijause oi" offences, for it must needs be that offences 
come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." ]f 
we shall suppose that American slavery in one of those offences 
which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, 
having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to 
remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible 
war as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we 
discern therein. any departure from these Divine attributes which 
the believers in a loving God always ascribe to him ? Fondly do 
we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war 
may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue unti) 
all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty 
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must 
be said, "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in 
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up 
the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may 
achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN GOES TO "THE FRONT." 

On the 24th of March, 1865, Mr. Lincoln went to " tbo 
ront," just as the lines of General Grant were being drawn 
ighter and tighter around Richmond. He witnessed a 
)art of the assault upon Petersburg, and was at City Foint 
vhen Richmond fell into the possession of the Federal 
orces on the 2d of April, 1865. He pushed on to the rebel 
capital, held a levee in the mansion of the fugitive Jeffer- 
son Davis, and left the same evening for City Point, re- 
turning to Washington soon after. 



194 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



GEN ERAL LEE SUBRENDERS. 

The fall of Ri chmond was followed speedily by the sur- 
render of Lee. The terms of capitulation determined upon 
are embraced in the following note from General Grant to 
General Lee : 

"Appomattox Court House, April 9th. — General Robert E. 
Lee, Army C. S. — In accordance with the substance of my 
letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender 
of the army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to 
wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, 
one copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other 
to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate, 
the officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms 
against the Government of the United States mitil properly 
exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to 
sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, 
artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and 
turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. 
This will not embrace the side arms of the officers, nor their 
private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man 
will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by 
United States authority so long as they observe their parole 
and the laws in force were they may reside. 

" Very Respectfully, " U. S. Grant, 

" Ueuienant-General.'^ 

These easy terms were accepted, and it is known that 
President Lincoln, in dictating them, was actuated by a 
kindly spirit of conciliation. 



THE PRESIDENT RETURNS TO WASHINGTON. 

On the nth of April, 1865, there was high rejoicing at 
tb^ National Capital. The public buildings were illuminated 
at night, in honor of the great victories o^ the Union 
arms, and the people were happy at the prospect of a 
speedy peace. President Lincoln was serenaded at the 
White House. The President made a responsive speech, 
in substance as follows: 



LIFE AND SERVICES OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 195 



MR. LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. 

" We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of 
heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the 
Burrender of the principal insurgent army, give hopes of a 
righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be 
restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all 
blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national 
thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. 
Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoic- 
ing be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with 
others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure 
of transmitting much of the good news to yon. But no part of 
the honor or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful 
officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood 
ready, but was not in reach to ^ake active part. By these re- 
cent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority — 
reconstruction, which has had a large share of thought from 
the first — is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It 
is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike a war between indepen- 
dent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. 
No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other 
man. We must simply begin with and mould from disorganized 
and discordant elements. 

*** ***** 

" In the annual message of December, 1863, and the accom- 
panying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as 
the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, 
would be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive Govern- 
ment of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the 
only plan which might, possibly, be acceptable ; and I also dis- 
tinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say 
when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Con- 
gress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted 
to the then cabinet, and approved by every member of it. One 
of them suggested that 1 should then and in that connection 
apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore ex^ 
cepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana, that I should drop the 
suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I 
should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the 
admission of members of Congress. But even he approved 
every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed 
or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution 
of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, prac- 
tically applies the proclamation to the part previously excepted. 
It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and is silent, 
as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of mem- 
bers to Congress. So that, as it applied to Louisiana, csry 



196 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message 
went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the 
plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to it, from 
any processed emancipationist, came to my knowledge imtil 
after the news reached Washington that the people of Louis- 
iana harf begun to move in accordance with it. From abou*- 
July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposea 
to be interested in seel<ihg a reconstruction of a State Goveri,' 
ment for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan 
before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote 
me that he was confident that the people, with his military co- 
operation, would reconstruct substantially on that plan. I 
wrote to him and some of tliem to try it. They tried it, and 
the result is known. Such has been my only agency in getting 
up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise 
is out, as before stated. But as bad promises are better broken 
than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise and break it when- 
ever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public 
interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. 

******** 

" We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of 
their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the 
sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to 
those States, is to again get them into their proper practical 
relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but, in fact, 
easier, to do this without deciding, or even considering, whether 
those States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. 
Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly imma- 
terial whether they had been abroad. Let us all join in doing 
tlie acts necessary to restore the proper practical relations 
between those States and the nation, and each forever after 
innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts 
he brought the States from withoxit into the Union, or only 
gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. 
The amount of' constituency, so to speak, on which the Louisi- 
ana Government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it 
contained 50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of 12,000, as 
it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective 
franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself 
prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and 
on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is 
not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all 
that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as 
it is, and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse? Can 
Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the 
Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State 
government? Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore 
slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, 
assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held 



\ 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 197 

elections, organized a State government, adopted a Free State 
constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to 
black and white, and empowering the legislature to confer the 
elective franchise upon the colored man. This Legislature has 
already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently 
passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. 
These twelve thousand persciiis are thus fully committed to the 
Union and to perpetuate freedom in the State ; committed to 
the very things, and nearly all things, the nation wants, and 
they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make 
good this committal. Now if we reject and spurn them, we do 
our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We in fact say 
to the white man, you are worthless or worse ; we will neither 
help you nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say : This 
cup of liberty which these, your old masters, held to your lips, 
we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gather- 
ing the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and unde- 
fined when, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and 
paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring 
Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have 
so far been imable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we 
recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the 
converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts 
and nerve the arms of 12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue 
for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow 
it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, 
in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and 
energy, and daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the 
elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the 
already advanced steps toward it, than by rimning backward 
over them ? Concede that the new government of Louisiana 
is to what it should be as the ef};g is to the fowl, we shall sooner 
have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. 
[Laughter.] 

* * * * * * * * 

"Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation 
with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new 
State government ? What has been said of Louisiana will 
apply to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain 
to each State, and such important and sudden changes occur 
in the same State, and withal so new and unprecedented is the 
whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be 
prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and 
inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Im 
port ant principles may and must be inflexible. In the present 
situation, as the phrase goes, tt may be my duly to make soine 
new announcement to the people of the South. I am consider- 
ing, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action Will be 
proper." 



198 THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ASSASSINATION OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Henceforward, the Fourteenth claj of April, 1865, will 
stand in the annals of our country equal jn importance 
with the ever memorable Fourth of July, 1176. On the 
l,th of April, 1861, the national flag was lowered on the 
ramparts of Fort Sumter to the overwhelming forces of 
the Rebellion. On the 14th of April, 1865, just four years 
after the gallant Major Anderson run the Banner down 
from the flag-staif and bore it away as a holy treasure to 
the care of the loyal North, the same banner vindicated 
in a thousand bloody battles, was again flung to the breeze 
by the same noble hero, over the same spot whence it dis- 
appeared in 1861. The 14th of April, 1865, was a day 
of jubilee throughout the nation. Richmond had been 
captured. Lee's army of veterans, the main stay of the 
Rebellion, was defeated, broken, and prisoners. It's sur- 
render had sealed the fate of treason. Johnston could 
not hold out before the invincible legions of Sherman, and 
Peace, walking in the footsteps of Victory, was at hand. 
The nation was exultant. Its great heart throbbed with 
a joy inexpressible, and throughout the length and breadth 
of the land preparations for celebrating the Fourteenth 
day of April had been made. At twelve o'clock, the stars 
and stripes were floating in every city, town and hamlet, 
on many a mountain and hill-top, in every valley, and on 
all the plains. North, East and West, in honor of their 
restoration to Sumter and their triumph over the black 
flag of anarchy and slavery. 

Monday night, April the l^th, was designed as a night 
of illumination, and there was not a loyal household :n 
the land that had failed to prepare its flags, its portraits 
of our heroes, and its candles, lamps or bonfires for the 
glorious occasion. 

Bat if the day was to be celebrated with such wild 
demonstrations of delight as our fathers and their children 



THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 199 

were used to honor the Anniversary of our Independence 
nf Britain, henceforth associated with the laurels of vic- 
tory are to be found entwined the sombre weeds of woe, 
the sighing leaves of the yew tree, and the silently waving 
;ranches of the willow. 

Assassination stalked abroad with the shadows of that 
eventful night and 

Abraham Lincoln, the respected, revered, and beloved 
Leader and President, fell beneath the hand of one who 
had not the courage to look into his manly and honest 
face and commit the deed, but stealthily and cowardly ap- 
proached him from behind and fired the fatal shot which 
deprived the country of its best and purest magistrate 
since the time of Washington. 

During the day, Mr. Lincoln had been unusually cheer- 
ful. His heart which entertained " malice toward none 
and charity for all" was filled with a happiness which he 
vainly tried to express in words to those around him. 
His face told more than his lips could utter, and at the 
Cabinet Meeting held that day, the members remarked 
that he was more than ever cheerful, and seemed to feel 
that the great burden which had been weighing so heavily 
upon his spirits for the four years previous, was at last 
lifting from his breast. 

The hour had come — the long looked for, the often 
prayed for hour, when the carnage which treason had 
initiated was stayed, and smiling Peace again furled her 
wings over a land restored to harmony. Realizing this, 
as only the patriotic heart of Mr. Lincoln could realize 
so momentous a fact, he was happy in the fullest and 
broadest sense of the word. Amid the glad thoughts 
which rushed like waves of joy through his bosom, there 
was no one which whispered of the terrible fate which 
awaited him, the horrible shock which with the next 
morning's dawn was to strike the rejoicing nation, his 



200 THE ASSASSIXATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

own dearly loved people, dumb with grief — speecLlesa 
with a woe that had no voice for utterance. 

Late in the afternoon, the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives and a warm per- 
sonal friend of Mr. Lincoln, was with the President. Mr 
Colfax had called to pay his last respects to Mr. Lincoln 
ere setting out on a tour to the Rocky Mountains. The 
President, ever mindful of the people, requested him to 
say to the miners of Nevada and the pioneers of the Far 
West, that he remembered them with much affection, and 
he desired that they should be encouraged in their pur- 
poses to develope the resources of that hitherto but little 
known region of our Republic. His sole ambition ap- 
peared then, as it always had during the war, and through 
his whole life, to be that of a benefactor to his country. 

During the day, President Lincoln had been invited to 
visit Ford's Theatre in the evening, and it was also an- 
nounced in the papers that Lieutenant-General Grant 
would be present. When Speaker Colfax rose to leave 
the Presidential Mansion, Mr. Lincoln asked him if ho 
would not accompany himself and Mrs. Lincoln to the 
theatre, but Mr. Colfax wishing to leave the city in a few 
hours, declined the urgent invitation, and shaking hands 
with the President in earnest farewell, and receiving 
his kind remembrances for the miners of the Far off West, 
left never again to see his illustrious friend in conscious 
life. 

Mr. Lincoln, in company with his lady. Miss Harris, 
daughter of Senator Harris of New York, and Major 
Rathburn of the U. S. A., reached the theatre shortly 
before nine o'clock, and was received with a perfect tem- 
pest of applause, the audience rising, cheering and waving 
handkerchiefs and hats tumultuously. The President ac- 
knowledged the compliment by bowing repeatedly from 
his box, his face exhibiting a radiant pleasure, indicating 



THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 201 

the gratitude which filled his heart. It was a proud mo- 
ment, and yet he was a man who felt no pride except in 
the discharge and accomplishment of duty. 

THE ASSASSINATION. 

About ten o'clock in the evening, while the play, "Our 
American Cousin," was progressing, a stranger, who proved 
to be John Wilkes Booth, an actor of some note, worked 
his way into the proscenium box occupied by the presi- 
dential party, and leveling a pistol close behind the head 
of Mr. Lincoln, he fired, and the ball was lodged deep in 
the brain of the President. The assassin then drew a 
dirk, and cutting right and left with it, he sprang from 
the box, flourishing the weapon aloft, and shouted as he 
reached the stage the motto upon the escutcheon of the 
State of Virginia, " Sic Semper Tijrannis .'" The miscre 
ant dashed across the stage, and before the audience or 
the actors could recover from their amazement and be- 
wilderment, or realize the real position of affairs, the mur- 
derer had mounted a fleet horse in waiting in an alley in the 
rear of the theatre, and galloping off, he escaped for a time. 

The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed to the audi- 
ence the fact that the President was shot, when all rose, 
many pressing toward the stage, and hundreds of per- 
sons exclaiming, " Hang him ! Hang him !" The excite- 
ment was of the wildest nature. Many rushed for the 
President's box, while others cried out, " Stand back I 
Give him fresh airl" and called for stimulants. It was 
not known at first where he was wounded, the most of 
those about him thinking that he was shot through the 
heart; but after opening his vest, and finding no wound 
in his breast, it was discovered that he was shot in the 
head between the left ear and the centre of the back part 
of the head. In a few moments he was borne to a private 
house, Mr. Peterson's, just opposite the theatre, where 
the Surgeon-General, and several prominent physicians 



202 THE DYING SCENES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and surgeons were speedily summoned. Meanwhile the 
members of the Cabiuet, with the exception of Secretary 
Seward, whose life had been attempted by an assassin at 
about the same hour with the President, assembled in the 
room where the Chief Magistrate of the nation lay dying. 
Secretaries Stanton, Welles, Ushee, McCuLLOcti, 
Attorney-General Speed, and Assistant Secretaries Matjn 
SELL B. Field, of the Treasury, and Judge William T. 
Otto, of the Interior, together with Speaker Colfax, and 
several other prominent gentlemen were present. The 
scene was one of extraordinary solemnity. The history 
of the world does not furnish a parallel. Quiet, breath- 
ing away his life serenely, unconscious of all around, sen- 
sible to no pain, lay the great Man of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, passing hence to that immortality which has been 
accorded by Providence to few of earthly mould. 

THE DYING SCENES. 

All the long, weary night, the watchers stood by the 
touch of the dying President. From the moment when 
the fatal bullet entered his brain he never spoke, never 
evinced any consciousness, but with closed eyes rested in 
a repose which appeared to be the quiet of death. Mrs. 
Lincoln and Captain Robert Lincoln several times en- 
tered the chamber, but their grief was such that they tar- 
ried but a brief time, tender friends urging them to remain 
in the adjoining room. 

Day dawned at length, and the tide of life ebbed more 
rapidly, and at twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock, on 
the morning of Saturday, April 15th, 1865, the President 
breathed his last, closing his eyes as if falling to sleep, 
and his countenance assuming an expression of perfect 
serenity. There were no indications of pain, audit was 
not known that he was dead until the gradually decreas- 
ing respiration ceased altogether. 



THE DYING SCENES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 203 

The Rev. Dr. Gurley, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, 
in Washington, which Mr. Lincoln attended regularly 
with his family, immediately on its being ascertained that 
life was extinct, knelt at the bedside and offered an im- 
pressive prayer, which was responded to by all present. 

Dr. Gurley then proceeded to the front parlor, where Mrs. 
Lincoln, Captain Robert Lincoln, Mr. John Hay, the Presi 
dent's Private Secretary, and others were waiting, where 
he again offered prayer for the consolation of the family. 

The following minutes, taken by Di*. Abbott, show the 
condition of the President throughout the night: — 11 
P.M., pulse 44 ; 11'05 P.M., pulse 45, and growing 
weaker; 1110 P. M., pulse 45 ; 11-15 P. M., pulse 42 ; 
11-20 P. M., pulse 45, respiration 2t to 30; 11-25 P. M., 
pulse 42; 11-32 P.M., pulse 48 and full; 11-40 P. M., 
pulse 45; 11-45 P.M., pulse 45, respiration 22; 12-08 
A. M., respiration 22; 12-15 A. M., respiration 21, echmose 
of both eyes; 1230 A. M., pulse 54 ; 12-32 A. M., pulse 
60 ; 12-35 A. M., pulse 66 ; 12-40 A. M., pulse 69 ; right 
eye much swollen, and echmose ; 12*45 A. M., pulse 70, 
respiration 27 ; 12-55 A. M., pulse 80, struggling motion 
of arms; 1A.M., pulse 86, respiration 30; 130 A.M., 
pulse 95, appearing easier; 1-45 A.M., pulse 87, very 
quiet, respiration irregular, Mrs, Lincoln present. 2-10 
A. M., Mrs. Lincoln retired with Robert Lincoln to an 
adjoining room ; 2-30 A. M., the President is very quiet, 
pulse 54, respiration 28; 252 A. M., pulse 48, respira- 
tion 30; 3 A.M., visited again by Mrs. Lincoln; 3-25 
A. M., respiration 24, and regular ; 3-25 A. M., prayer by 
the Rev. Dr. Gurley; 4 A.M., respiration 26 and regu- 
lar ; 4-15 A.M., pulse 00, respiration 25; 5-50 A. M., 
respiration 28 and regular, sleeping; 6 A. M., pulse fail- 
irg. respiration 28; 6-30 A.M., still failing and labored 
breathing; 7 A. M., symptoms of immediate dissolution; 
7-22 A.M., death. 



201 THE DYING SCENES OF ABRAnAM LINCOLN 

Surrounding the death-bed of tneTresident were Secre- 
taries Stanton, Welles, Usher, Attorney-General Speed, 
Postmaster-General Dennison, M. T. Field, Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury ; Judge Otto, Assistant Secre - 
tary of Interior ; General Halleck, General Meigs, Sena- 
tor Sumner, F, R Andrews, of New York ; General Todd, 
of Dacotah ; John Hay, Private Secretary ; Governor 
Oglesby, of Illinois ; General Farnsworth, Mr. and Miss 
Kenny, Miss Harris, Captain Robert Lincoln, son of the 
President, and Dr. E. W. Abbott, R. K. Stone, C. D 
Gatch, Neal Hall, and Leiberman. Secretary McCulloch 
remained with the President until about 5 A. M., and 
Chief Justice Chase, after several hours attendance during 
the night, returned again early in the morning. 

A special Cabinet meeting was called immediately after 
the President's death, by Secretary Stanton, and held in 
the room where the corpse lay. Secretaries Stantoa, 
Welles, and Usher, Postmaster- General Dennison, and 
Attorney- General Speed, were present. 

THE AUTOPSY. 

After his death, a complete examination was made of 
the wound with the following result : The ball entered 
the skull midway between the left ear and the centre of 
the back of the head, and passed nearly to the right eye. 
The ball and two loose fragments of lead were found in 
the brain. Singularly enough, both orbital roofs were 
fractured inwardly, properly from contre-coup. The tena- 
city of life, was specially noticed by every surgeon 
in attendance. The brain was taken out, but a consider- 
able portion of it had already escaped from the wound. 

The autopsy of the President was made in the presence 
of Surgeon-General Barnes, Dr. Crane and Dr. Stone, of 
Washington, and by Drs. Woodward, Notson, and Curtis, 
of the regular army. 

Shortly after the sorrowful event, the President's body 



THE MURDERER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 205 

was removed to the Executive Mansion in a hearse, and 
wrapped in the American fing. It was escorted by a small 
guard of cavalry, General Augur and other military officers 
following on foot. A dense crowd accompanied the re- 
mains to the White House, where a military guard ex- 
cluded the crowd, allowing none but persons of the house- 
hold and personal friends of the deceased to enter the 
premises. 

The corpse was laid out in the room known as the 
guests' room, in the northwest wing of the White House, 
dressed in the suit of black clothes worn by him at his 
last inauguration. A placid smile rested upon the fea- 
tures, and the deceased seemed to be in a calm sleep, 
while flowers were placed upon the pillow and over the 
breast above the kindest heart that ever throbbed. 

THE MURDERER OP PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 
AND WHAT BECAME OP HIM. 

The murderer of Mr. Lincoln was John Wilkes Booth, 
an actor, and a native of Harford County, Maryland. 
During the continuance of the rebellion he was an ardent 
Secessionist, and he made no concealment of his warm 
sympathy with armed treason. He had frequently threat- 
ened to assassinate the President, and this threat was 
executed in tlie tragic and dramatic manner described. 

The assassin made his way on horseback into St. 
Mary's county, where he lay concealed for some days, 
eluding his pursuers, although the rewards for his capture 
amounted in the aggregate to over one hundred thousand 
dollars. It was, however, pretty conclusively ascertained 
Ihat he was iu this locality, and parties of cavalry finally 
closed in around him, so as to compel him to beat a retreat. 
On Sunday, April 23d, 18G5, Colonel Baker ascertained 
that Booth, and an accomplice named Harold, had crossed 
the Potomac river in the noigliborhood of Swann Point, and 
on Monday morning, April 2 llli, First Lieutenant Edward 
13 



206 THE MURDERER OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. 

Doherty, 16tli New York Cavalry, with a detachment of 
twenty-five cavalrymen of that regiment, aud accomi)iinied 
by some of Colonel Baker's detectives, proceeded by 
steamer to Belle Plain. 

On Tuesday afternoon, April 25th, a man named Jett, 
by whom Booth and Harold had been ferried across the 
Rappahannock river at Mathias Point, was arrested. At 
first, Jett refused to communicate anything ; but upon 
being threatened with instant death if he did not, he 
agreed to lead the party to the place where Booth and 
Harold were concealed. They were found on Tuesday 
night, in a barn, on the premises of Mr. Garrett, about 
three miles from Port Royal. They had ridden there 
from the ferry, both mounted on one horse. 

The cavalry surrounded the barn and summoned the in- 
mates to surrender. At first Booth insisted that he was 
alone. He talked with the men for three hours through the 
crevices of the barn, through which he could see plainly 
all that were outside, while they could distinguish nothing 
within. He told Lieutenant Doherty he had a bead 
drawn upon him, and could shoot him if he chose ; but did 
not fire. 

At last, as guerillas were gathering in the vicinity, and 
Lieutenant Doherty feared his little party might be over- 
powered and lose the prisoners, he determined to burn 
them out. The barn was, therefore, set on fire, when 
Harold gave himself up; but Booth refused to surrender, 
and prepared to use his weapons. Sergeant Corbett then 
fired through one of the crevices, and shot Booth in the 
b(^ad. Upon being shot. Booth exclaimed, " It's ill up 
new; I'm gone." He was found to be wounded in the 
head, very nearly in the same spot where the fatal ball of 
the assassin entered the head of President Lincoln. A 
doctor was sent for, and brandy administered, but he died 
in about two and a half hours after he was shot, lie did not 



ASSISTANT SECRETARY FIELD'S STATEAfENT. 207 

deny his crime, but declared that he died for his country. 
He was armed with two six-barrelled and one seven- 
barrelled revolvers, and a large knife, probably the same 
which he flourished on the stage on the occasion of the 
assassination. He hads also three packages of pistol 
cartridges, some bills of exchange, but only about one 
liundred and seventy-five dollars in Treasury notes. The 
bills of exchange were on a Canadian bank, were dated in 
October, 1864, when Booth was there, and are received 
as an important link in the chain of evidence showing that 
the assassination was planned in Canada. The capture 
occurred about three o'clock on Wednesday morning, 
April 26th. His left leg was much swollen from an injury 
received when he leaped from the President's box upon 
the stage at the theatre, although he had told Dr. Mudd, 
who had bandaged and set it, that he had been hurt by 
his horse falling upon it. 

His accomplice and companion, David C. Harold, who 
had been with Booth ever since the crime was consum- 
mated, was captured and taken to Washington in com- 
pany with tJie body of the dead assassin. 

STATEMENTS AND AFFIDAVITS IN RELATION 
TO THE MURDER. 

iMr. Field, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, de- 
scribes the scene, and the momem when he received the 
news of the murdei-, as follows : 

MR. FIELD'S STATEMENT. 

'• On Friday evening, April 14th, 1865, at about half-past 
•en o'clock, I was sitting in the reading-room at Willard'a 
Hotel, engaged -with a newspaper, when a person hurriedly en- 
tered the hotel and passed up the hall, announcing in a loud 
tone of voice that the President had just heen shot at Ford's 
'i'heatre. I started to my feet, and had hardly reached the office 
when two other persons came in and confirmed the report — 
which at first I was hardly able to credit. I had parted about 
fifteen minutes previously with Mr. Mellen, of the Treasury 
l)epartmeut, who had retired to his room for the night, and 1 at 



20S ASSISTANT SECRETARY FIELD'S STATEMENT. 

once went to Litn and communicated wliat had occurred, ai.d 
■we started together for the scene of the tragedy. 

" We found the streets already crowded with excited masses 
of people, and when we reached the theatre there was a very 
large assemblage in front of it, as well as of the opposite house, 
belonging to Mr. Peterson, into which the President had been 
conveyed. The people around the theatre related to us sub- 
stantially the general facts connected with the assassination 
which have since been communicated to the public. The im- 
pression was prevalent, however, at that time, that the Presi- 
dent had been shot in the breast, about the region of the heart, 
and that the wound might not prove fatal. After a few minutes 
we crossed the street and endeavored to gain admission into the 
house where Mr, Lincoln lay. This I effected with some little 
difficulty. 

" The first person whom I met in the hall was Miss Harris, 
daughter of U. S. Senator Ira Harris, of New York, who had 
been at the theatre with the Presidential party. She informed 
me that the President was dying, but desired me not to communi- 
cate the fact to Mrs. Lincoln, who was in the front parlor. 
Several other persons who were there confirmed the statement 
as to Mr, Lincoln's condition, I then entered the front par- 
lor, where I found Mrs, Lincoln in a state of indescribable 
agitation. She repeated over and over again, ' Why didn't he 
kill me ? Why didn't he kill me ?' 

" I asked if there was any service I could render her, and she 
requested me to go for Dr. Stone, or some other eminent phy- 
sician. Both Dr, Stone and Surgeon-General Barnes had been 
already sent for, but neither had yet arrived. On my way out 
I met Major T, T. Eckert, of the War Department, who told 
me that he was himself going for Dr, Stone. I then went for 
Dr. Hall, one of the most distinguished surgeons in the District. 
I found him at home, and he at once accompanied me. When 
we again reached the neighborhood of the house access had be- 
come very difficult, guards having been stationed on every side, 

"After much effort I was enabled to obtain admission for 
Dr. Hall, but was not at that time permitted to enter myself; 
accordingly, I returned to Willard's. The whole population 
of the city was by this time out, and all kinds of conflicting 
stories were being circulated. At three or four o'clock I again 
started for Mr. Peterson's house. 'J'his time I was admitted with- 
out difficulty. I proceeded at once to the room in which the Presi- 
d'iut was dying. It was a small chamber, in an extension or 
back building, on the level with the first or parlor floor. The 
President was lying on his back, diagonally across a low double 
bedstead, his head supported by two pillows on the outer side 
of the bed. 

" The persons in the room were the Secretaries McCulloch, 
Stanton, Welles, and Harlan, Postmaster-General Denoison, 
the Attorney-General, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, 



ASSISTANT SECRETARY FIELD'S STATEMENT. 209 

Senator Sumner of Ma.'sachusetts, General Halleck, General 
Augur, General Meigs, General J. F. Farnsworth of Illinois, 
General Todd of Dacotah, the President's Assistant Private 
Secretary, Major Hay, the medical gentlemen, and perhaps two 
or three others. Dr. Stone was sitting on the foot of the bed. 
An army surgeon was sitting opposite the President's head, 
occasionally feeling his pulse, and applying his fingers tp the 
arteries of the neck and the heart. 

" Mr. Lincoln seemed to be divested of all clothing except 
the bed coverings. His e3'es were closed, and the lids and sur- 
rounding parts so injected with blood as to present the ap- 
pearance of having been bruised. He was evidently totally 
unconscious, and was breathing regularly but heavily, and with 
an occasional sigh escaping with the breath. There was 
scarcely a dry eye in the room, and the scene was the most 
solemn and impressive one I ever witnessed. After a while, 
Captain Robert Lincoln, of General Grant's stafT, and eldest son 
of the President, entered the chamber, and stood at the head- 
board, leaning over his father. 

" For a time his grief completely overpowered him, but he 
soon recovered himself and behaved in the most manly manner 
until the closing of the scene. As the morning wore on, the 
condition of the President remained unchanged until about 
seven o'clock. In the meantime, it came on to rain heavily 
and the scene from the windows was in dreary sympathy with 
that which was going on within. Just before this, Mrs. Lincoln 
had been supported into the chamber, and had thrown herself 
moaning upon her husband's body. She was permitted to re- 
main but a few minutes, when she was carried out in an almost 
insensible condition. 

"At about seven o'clock, the President's breathing changed 
in a manner to indicate that death was rapidly approaching. It 
became low and fitful, with frequent interruptions. Several 
times I thought that all was over, until the feeble respiration 
was resumed. At last, at just cwenty-two minutes past seven 
o'clock, without a struggle, without a convulsive movement, 
without a tremor, he ceased breathing — and was no more. 

" Thus died this great, pure, kind-hearted man, who never 
willingly injured a human being — the greatest martyr to liberty 
the world has ever seen. 

" Shortly after his death, finding that his eyes were not en- 
tirely closed, I placed my hands upon them. One of the 
attendant surgeons first put nickel cents upon thom, and then 
substituted silver half dollars. It was twenty minutes or half 
an hour before the body commenced to grow cold. The lov/er 
jaw began to fall slightly, and the lower teeth were exposed. 
One of the medical gentlemen bound up the jaw with a pocket 
handkerchief. Mr. Stanton threw down the window-shades, 
and J left the Chamber of Death. Immediately after tha 



210 MAJOR EATIIBONe'S STATEMENT. 

decease, the Rev. Dr. Gurley had offered up a fervent and 
affecting prayer in the room, interrupted only by the sobs of 
those present. 

" When I left the room he was again praying in the front 
parlor. Poor Mrs. Lincoln's moans were distressing to listen 
to. After the prayer was over I entered the parlor, and found 
Mrs. Ijincoln supported in the arms of her son Robert. She 
was soon taken to her carriage. As she reached the front door 
she glanced at the theatre opposite, and exclaimed several times, 
• Oh, that dreadful house !' ' That dreadful house !' Immediately 
thereafter guards were stationed at the door of the room in which 
the President's body lay. In a few minutes I left myself. It 
is hoped that some historical painter will be found capable of 
portraying that momentous death-scene." 

MAJOR BATHBONE'S STATEMENT. 

In connection with the murder of Mr. Lincoln, we give 
the statements of Major Rathbone and Miss Harris, who 
were in the President's box at the time. Being the only- 
persons, except Mrs. Lincoln, who were present when 
Booth executed his foul purpose, their statements are 
of great interest, delineating as they do the scenes which 
immediately transpired. Major IIatiibone appeared be- 
fore the investigating Magistrate, and testified as follows : 

" That on the 14th April, 1865, at about twenty minutes past 
eight o'clock in the evening, he, with Miss Clara H. Harris, left 
his residence, at the corner of Fifteenth and II streets, and 
joined the President and Mrs. Lincoln, and went with them in 
their carriage to P'ord's Theatre, in Tenth street. The box 
assigned to the President is in the second tier, on the riglit- 
hand side of the audience, and was occupied by the President 
and Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and the deponent — and by no 
other person. The box is entered by passing from the front of 
the building, in the rear of the dress-circle, to a small entry or 
passage-way about eight feet in length and four feet in width. 

" This passage-way is entered by a door which opens on the 
inner side. The door is so placed as to make an acute angle 
between it and the wall behind it on the inner side. At tiie 
inner end of this passage-way is another door standing squarely 
across, and opening into the box. On the left-hand side of the 
passage-way, and very near the inner end, is a third door, which 
also opens into the box. This latter door was closed. The 
party entered the box through the door at the end of the pas- 
sage-way. The box i.=! so const rncted that it may be divided 
into two by a movable partiliun, one of the doors described 



MAJOR RATHBONE's STATEMENT. 211 

Opening into each. Tlie front of the box is about ten or twelve 
feet in length, and in the centre of the railing' is a small pillar 
overhung with a curtain. The depth of the box from front to 
rear is about nine feet. The elevation of the box above the 
stage, including the railing, is about ten or twelve feet. 

" When the party entered the box, a cushioned arm-chair was 
standing at the end of the box furthest from the stage and near- 
est the audience. This was also the nearest point to the door 
by which the box is entered. The President seated himself in 
this chair — and except that he once left the chair for the pur- 
pose of putting on his overcoat, remained so seated until he was 
shot. Mrs. Lincoln was seated in a chair between the Presi- 
dent and the pillar in the centre above described. At the 
opposite end of the box— that nearest the end of the stage — 
were two chairs. In one of these, standing in the corner. Miss 
Harris was seated. At her left hand, and along the wall run- 
ning from that end of the box to the rear, stood a small sofa. 
At the end of this sofa, next to Miss Harris, this deponent was 
seated. The distance between this deponent and the President, 
as they were sitting, was about seven or eight feet ; and the dis- 
tance between this deponent and the door was about the same. 

"The distance between the President, as he sat, and the door, 
was about four or five feet. The door, according to the recol- 
lection of this deponent, was not closed during the evening. 
When the second scene of the third act was being performed, 
and while this deponent was intently observing the proceedings 
upon the stage, with his back towards the door, he heard the 
discharge of a pistol behind him, and looking around, saw, 
through the smoke, a man between the door and the President. 
At the same time deponent heard him shout some word, which 
deponent thinks was ' Freedom !' This deponent instantly 
sprang towards him and seized him ; he wrested himself from the 
grasp and made a violent thrust at the breast of deponent with 
a large knife. Deponent parried the blow by striking it up, and 
received a wound several inches deep in his left arm, between 
the elbow and the shoulder. ^J'he orifice of the wound is about 
an inch and a half in length, and extends upwards towards the 
shoulder several inches. The man rushed to the front of the 
box, and deponent endeavored to seize him again, but only 
caught his clothes as he was leaping over the railing of the box. 
The clothes, as deponent believes, were torn in this attempt to 
seize him. 

"As he went over upon the stage, deponent cried out with a 
loud voice : — ' Stop that man !' Deponent then turned to the 
President ; his position was not changed ; his head was slightly 
bent forward, and his eyes were closed. Deponent saw that he 
was unconscious, and supposing him mortally wounded, rushed 
to the door for the purpose of calling medical aid. On reaching 
tlie outer dot)r of the ]iassage-way us aljove described, deponent 
found it barred by a heavy piece of plaidi, one end of which was 



212 MISS Harris's affteavit of the murder. 

secured in the wall, and the other resting against the door. It 
had been so securely fastened that it required considerable force 
to remove it. This wedge or bar was about four feet from the 
floor. Persons upon the outside were beating against the door 
for the purpose of entering. Deponent removed the bar, and the 
door was opened. 

"Several persons who represented themselves to be surgeons 
were allowed to enter. Deponent saw there Colonel Crawford, 
and requested him to prevent other persons from entering tLe 
box. Deponent then returned to the box, and found the sur- 
geons examining the President's person. They had not yet dis 
covered the wound. As soon as it was discovered it was deter- 
mined to remove him from the theatre. He was carried out, 
and this deponent then proceeded to assist Mrs. Lincoln, who 
was intensely excited, to leave the theatre. On reaching the 
head of the stairs, deponent requested Major Potter to aid him 
in assisting Mrs. Lincoln across the street to the house to which 
the President was being conveyed. The wound which deponent 
had received had been bleeding very profusely, and on reaching 
the house, feeling very faint from the loss of blood, he seated 
himself in the hall, and soon after fainted away, and was laid upon 
the floor. Upon the return of consciousness, deponent was 
taken in a carriage to liis residence. 

" In the review of the transaction, it is the confident belief of 
this deponent that the time which elapsed between the discharge 
of the pistol and the time when the assassin leaped from the box, 
did not exceed thirty seconds. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Miss 
Harris had left their seats. " H. R. Ratiihoxe. 

'■'Subscribed and sioorn before me this 17 th day of April, 1865 
"A. B. Olin, Justice Supreme Court, D. C." 

AFFIDAVIT OF MISS HARRIS. 

"District of Columbia, City of Washington, ss. : — Clara H. 
Harris, being duly sworn, says that she has read the foregoing 
affidavit of Major Eathbone, and knows the contents thereof; 
that she was present at Ford's Theatre with the President, and 
Mrs. Lincoln, and Major Rathbone on the evening of the 14th 
of April instant ; that "at the time she heard the discharge of the 
pistol she was attentively engaged in observing what was trans- 
piring upon the stas^e, and looking round she saw Major Rath- 
bone spring from his seat and advance to the opposite side of the 
box ; that she saw him engaged as if in a struggle with another 
man, but the smoke with which he was enveloped prevented this 
deponent from seeing distinctly the other man; that the first 
time she saw him distinctly was when he leaped from the box 
apon the stage; that she then heard Major Rathbone cry out, 
' Stop that man !' and this deponent then immediately repeated 
the cry, 'Stop that man! Won't somebody stop that man?' 
A moment after some one from the stage asked, ' What is it?' 



SURGEON GENERAL BARNES' STATEMENT. 213 

or ' What is the matter?' and deponent replied, ' The President 
is shot.' Very soon after, two persons, one wearing the uniform 
of a naval surgeon and the other that of a soldier of the Veteran 
Reserve Corps, came upon the stage, and the deponent assisted 
them in climbing up to the box. 

" And this deponent further says that the facts stated in the 
foregoing affidavit, so far as the same came to the knowledge or 
notice of this deponent, are accurately stated therein. 

"Clara H. Harris. 

"Subscribed and sivorn before me this llth day of April, 1865. 
"A. B. Oi.iN, Justice of Supreme Court, D. C." 

SURGEON GENERAL BARNES' STATEMENT. 

On the night of the assassination, Surgeon General 
Barnes was mA in front of Willard's Hotel by an officer 
pale and breathless, who informed him that the President 
had been shot. Supposing that the deed was done at the 
White House, General Barnes hurried thitherward. Stop- 
ping at the Surgeon General's office to give orders for 
assistance, he found a summons to the bedside of Secre- 
tary Seward, who had been attacked by an assassin. 
Believing that the two stories were from this, Barnes 
hurried to the chamber of Mr. Seward. He found him 
lying upon the bed with one cheek cut open and 
part of the flesh lying upon the pillow. The room pre- 
sented a horrible scene. Blood was everywhere. The 
attendants were helpless. A deed of horror had been 
enacted ; but there was no one to explain its details. Dr. 
Barnes immediately gave his attention to Mr. Seward ; 
but soon afterward Dr. Norris arrived, and, turning over 
the Secretary to his care, the Surgeon General proceeded 
to look after the Assistant Secretary, Frederick Seward, 
who was lying insensible upon a sofa in the adjoining 
room. In the meantime other surgical attendants had 
come, among whom was Dr. Notson, and while minis- 
tering to the wounded at Secretary Seward's, the Sur- 
geon-G£neral was summoned to the dying murdered 
President. 



214 FULL DESCRirTIOX OF FORDS THEATRE. 

DESCRIPTION OF FORD'S THEATRE. 

Ford's Theatre is situated on Tenth street, just above 
E street, ia Washington. It is a large edifice, constructed 
of brick, and of plain appearance. Its internal arrange- 
ments are somewhat novel, differing from those in our 
large cities. There are eight private boxes instead of six, 
as is the case in the Philadelphia theatrea The four 
ower boxes, two on each side of the stage, are scanely 
more than loopholes, and are very excellent points from 
which those who wish to see and remain unseen may take 
inspection. The apertures which appear above the stage 
are about three feet square. Consequentlj^the boxes im 
mediately above them are elevated but a short distance 
above the stage, a distance which any one could easily 
leap, even were his nerves not freshly braced from the 
commission of a murder. 

The four upper boxes are the boxes of the theatre, and 
are very elegant and spacious. They give a tone of ele- 
gance to the auditorium, and are sumptuously appointed. 
It is in them that the most magnificent displays of toilette 
are made upon nights of opera, and that at once command' 
the whole house, and are central points of inspection from 
it. Each accommodates quite a party, and the locale is 
so arranged that the greater portion of the occupants, ex- 
cept those in the back of the box, are in full view of the 
audience. 

The box which the President occupied, and which was 
known as " The President's Box," consisted of the two 
upper boxes on the right hand side of the house as you 
face the stage, thrown into one. Mr. Lincoln was al'vaj'S 
accompanied by a party, which, although limited to per- 
sonal friends and foreign officials, to whom courtesy re- 
quired the extension of an invitation, was always suffi- 
ciently large to render more than one box necessary for 
comfort. 



FUi.L DESCRIPTION OF FORD's THEATRE. 215 

The proprietor of tbe theatre had, therefore, at the 
commencement of the season, made arrangements by 
which these two boxes could at any time be thrown 
into one. They were fitted up with great elegance and 
taste. The curtains were of fine lace and buff satin, the 
naper dark and figured, the carpet Turkey, the seats 
velvet, and the exterior ornamentations were lit up with a 
chaste chandelier suspended from the outside. A wind- 
ing staircase leads up to the lobbies which conduct to the 
box, and unless the arrangements are more stringent than 
they used to be, no decently dressed person would find 
much difficulty, probably, in entering one of these boxes 
after they had once been opened for the ingress of the 
party using them. 

The parquet consists of cane-seat chairs, rising in very 
gradual elevation, so that even the most distant observers 
obtain a fair view of the stage, and the entire parquette 
on an opera night, viewed from the stage or private boxes, 
resembles an exquisitely variegated parterre. The first 
tier or balcony is very commodious, and opens into a re- 
tiring-saloon, elegantly illuminated and appointed. A 
second tier, corresponding to the family circle, completed 
the portion of the house dedicated to the accommodation 
of the audience. The house would hold probably between 
two and three thousand people. 

There are two alleys at Ford's Theatre. One leads 
from the stage, along the east side of the theatre, between 
the theatre and a refreshment saloon, and so out to Tenth 
sti'eet. The alley is neatly paved, and is boarded and 
papered on both sides. The entry to it from the stage is 
through a glass door, and the exit from it on to Tenth 
Btreet through a wooden one. 

The other passage-way leads from the back of the 
theatre to a small alley which communicates with Ninth 
and other streets, and conducts to a livery-stable locality 



216 REMAINS, IN STATE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 

It was in this alley that the horse of the murderer was 
kept waiting. 

The Tenth street door would have been too public, 
and escape, even temporary, a matter of impossibility. 
But the escape by the alley leading from the back of the 
stage was comparatively safe. 

There are two doors there, one used for the egress and 
ingress of the actors, and the other devoted to the accom- 
modation of scenery and machinery. It was through the 
smaller one that the assassin made his exit. 

THE FUNERAL. 

In Cabinet Council it was determined that Wednesday, 
the 19th of April, 1865, should be devoted to the obse- 
quies at the Capital, and acting Secretary of State, Mr. 
Hunter, issued the following dispatch to the people of 
the United States: 

" To THE Peoplp; of the United States : — The undersigned is 
directed to announce that the funeral ceremonies of the late 
lamented Chief Magistrate will take place at the Executive 
Mansion, in this city, at 12 o'clock noon, on Wednesday, the 
19th inst. The various religious denominations throughout the 
country are invited to meet in their respective places of worship 
at that hour, for the purpose of solemnizing this occasion with 
appropriate ceremonies. 

(Signed) " Wm. Hunter, 

"Acting Secretary of Slate. 

"Department of State, Washington, April llth, IbtJS." 

Tuesday, April 18th, was set apart for the citizens of 
Washington to visit the remains lying in state at the 
White House, and fully twenty thousand persons, irre- 
spective of rank or color, looked upon the face of the dead 
President, and passed out with eyes weeping and hearts 
overburdened with grief. 

THE OBSEQUIES. 

Wednesday, April 19th, dawned with a clear sky and 
a genial sun. Washington was in the deepest mourning. 



FUXEBAL PERYICES AT THE WHITE HOUSE, 217 

All the stores were closed as thej had been since the 
assassination. Sadness was dej^ioted on every counte- 
nance, and soon the streets were thronged with military, 
societies, and citizens, wending their way to Pennsylvania 
Avenue and the White House. All the public buildings 
were draped in black, and every house in the city hung 
out the sombre crape. 

At ten o'clock those invited to attend the funeral 
ceremonies in the White House began to assemble, while 
all the avenues leading to it were crowded with the mili- 
tary forming for procession, and the sidewalks were block- 
aded with an anxious and orderly multitude of spectators. 

THE SCENES AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 

By 10.30 it was almost impossible to wend one's way 
to the White House, x^one were admitted except by 
cards, which were inscribed as follows : 



GKEEX 


ROOM. 


ADMIT THE BEARER TO THE | 


EXECUTIVE 


MANSION, 1 


0\ WEDNESDAY j 


THE 19tU of 


APRIL, 1865. j 



In the centre of the East Room was the catafalque. 
Around the coffin was a large wreath of white camelias, 
orange blossoms, and evergreens. At the feet was a 
beautiful anchor, of choicest flowers, sent by Hon. Mrs. 
Sperry, of Connecticut ; at the head was a cross of white 
camelias, and the delicate white exotics which, with a bas- 
ket of flowers, was the present of Mrs. James H. Orne, of 
Philadelphia. A number of wreaths were scattered 
around in profusion. 

Upon the centre, east side of the catafalque, was the 



218 FUNERAL SERVICES AT THE WUITE HOUSB. 

President and Cabinet. 
Upon their right was the 

Diplomatic Corps. 

The Assistant Secretaries. 

Governors of States and Territories 

The Judiciary. 

The Army and Navy. 

The New York Delegation. 

Pall Bearers. 

Upon the left of the President were the 

Supreme Court. 

The Senate. 

Members op the House of Representatives. 

Illinois and Kentucky Delegation. 

The Clergy. 

City Authorities. 

Upon the west side were the Press ; upon the south 

side, and at the foot of the catafalque, were the family of 

Mr. Lincoln. 

The guard of honor, consisting of Major-General 
Hunter and Brigadier-General Dyer, marched in silence 
to and fro. The lilies, the orange blossoms, and tho 
choicest of flowers that decked the corpse filled the room 
with the sweetest fragrance. The windows, shrouded with 
crape, kept out the light, and made the gloom, that all felt, 
seem like being in a living tomb 1 

The echoes of the funeral dirges in the distance seemed 
like the terrible murmur of the avenging God's wrath at 
the impiety of the awful crime that brought all here as 
mourners. As the various delegations came in they 
quietly took the places assigned them. Not a word was 
spoken loudly. Whispers faint, as though the loved one 
was sleeping after his weary troubles and all feared to 
w-ake him, were the only noises that marred the death-like 
stillness of the room, which had been the scene of two 
similar services. First, over the body of William Henry 



FUNEKAL SERVICES AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 219 

Harrison, then over the gallant General Zachary Taylor, 
now over Mr. Lincoln, beloved more than any man since 
the days of Washington. 

The exceeding great grief of Mrs. Lincoln was such 
that she was unable to be present at the services, and the 
chairs for herself and her sons were vacant. 

The mourners present were : 

Hon. J. G. Nicolay, the President's Confidential Secre- 
tary, and his colleague, Major John Hay. 

Mr. N. W. Edwards and Mr. C. M. Smith, brothers-in- 
law of Mrs. Lincoln. 

Dr. L. Beecher Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky, and 
General J. B. S. Todd, of Dacotah, cousins of Mrs. 
Lincoln. 

Upon the left of President Johnson, was Ex-Senator P. 
King, of New York ; and upon his right, Hannibal Ham- 
lin, Ex-Vice-President. 

Behind Mr. King, was Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

Behind the President, was Secretary McCulloch. 

Behind Mr. Hamlin, were Chief Justice Chase, and 
Secretaries Welles, Dennison, Speed, and Usher. 

At twelve o'clock the room was filled, the President and 
Cabinet having entered last. 

Rev. Dr. Gurley then announced the order of exercises, 
which were opened by Rev. Dr. Hall reading the funeral 
service of the Episcopal Church, commencing "I am the 
resurrection and the life, saith the Lord." 

THE WHOLE AUDIENCE JOIN IN THE 
PRAYERS. 

This was followed by a fervent prayer by Bishop Simp- 
son, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was not 
only appropriate but efTective in all respects. He closed 
with the Lord's Prayer, in which the whole audience 
joined as if by one voice. All those present were 
melted to tears under its effect. 



220 BISHOP Simpson's prayer at white house. 

BISHOP SIMPSON'S PRAYER. 

"In the course of his piayer iho Bishop said thatiu the hands 
of God were the issues of life and death. Our sins had called 
for his wrath to descend upon us as individuals and as a commu- 
nity. For the sake of our blessed Redeemer, forgiveness was 
asked for all our trangressions, and that all our iniquities may 
be washed away. While we bow under this sad bereavement 
which has caused a wide spread gloom, not only in this circle but 
over the entire land, an invocation was made that all might sub- 
mit to God's holy will. Thanks were returned for the gift of such 
a man as ovxr Heavenly Father had just taken from us, and for 
the many virtues which distinguished all his transactions ; for 
the integrity, honesty and transparency of character bestowed 
upon him, and for having given him counsellors to guide our 
nation through periods of unprecedented sorrow. He was per- 
mitted to live to behold the breaking of the clouds which over- 
hung our national sky, and the disintegration of the rebellit n. 
Going up the mount he beheld the land of promise, with its 
beauty and happiness, and the glorious destiny reserved for us as 
a nation. Thanks were also returned that his arm was strength- 
ened and wisdom and firmness given to his heart to pen a 
declaration of emancipation by which were broken the chains 
of millions of the human race. God be thanked that the assas- 
sin who struck down the Chief Magistrate had not the hand to 
again bind the suffering and oppressed. The name of the be- 
loved dead would ever be identilied with all that is great and 
glorious with humanity on earth. God grant that all who stand 
here entrusted with the administration of public affairs may have 
the power, strength and wisdom to complete the work of His 
servant so gloriously begun, and may the successor of the 
deceased President not bear the sword in vain. God grant that 
strength may be given to him and to our military to perfect vic- 
tory, and to complete the contest now nearly closed. May the 
spirit of rebellion soon pass away. May the last vestige 
of slavery, which caused the rebellion, be driven from our land. 
God grant that the sun may shine on a free people from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes to the Gulf. May 
He not only safely lead us through the struggle, but give us 
peace with all nations of the earth. Give us hearts to deal 
justly with them, and give them hearts to deal justly with us, so 
that universal peace may reign on earth. We rai.-e our hearts 
to Thee, to plead that Thy blessing may descend on the family 
of the deceased. God bless the weeping widow as in her 
broken-heartedness she bows under a sad stroke more than she 
can bear. Encircle her in Thy own arms. God, be gracious with 
the children left behind him. Endow his sons with wisdom from 
on high ; endow them with great usefulness. May they appre- 
ciate the patriotic example and virtues of their father, and walk 



DOCTOR GURLEY's FUNERAL ORATION. 221 

in h*3 footsteps. We pray Thee to make the assassination of 
personal profit to our hearts, .while by the remains of the 
deceased, whom we had called a friend, do Thou grant us peace 
and repentance of our sins. So that at the end of life we may 
be gathered where assassins are not found, where sorrow and 
sickness never come ; but all gather in peace and love around 
the Father's throne in glory. We pray Thee that our Republic 
may be made the stronger for this blow. While here we pledge 
ourselves to set our faces as a flint against every form of opposi- 
tion which may rise up for its destruction ; so that we, the 
children, may enjoy the blessed advantages of a government de- 
livered from our fathers." 

THE FUNERAL ORATION. 

After the prayer, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, of the Presby- 
terian Church, which the President and family attended, 
delivered an eloquent and impressive funeral oration, as 
follows : 

"As we stand here to-day mourners around this coffin and 
around the lifeless remains of our beloved Chief Magistrate, we 
recognize and we adore the sovereignty of God. His throne is 
in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. He hath 
done and hath permitted to be done whatsoever He pleased. 
Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and 
judgment are the habitation of His throne. His way is in the 
sea and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not 
known. Canst thon by searching find out God ? Canst thou 
find out the Almighty unto perfection ? It is as high as heaven. 
AVhat canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst thou 
know ? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and 
broader than the sea. If He cut off and shut up, or gather to- 
gether ; then who can hinder Him ? For He knoweth vain men ; 
He seeth wickedness. Also, will He not then consider it. We 
bow before His infinite majesty. We bow — we weep — we wor- 
ship. 

" ' There reason fails with all her powers 
There faith prevails, and love adores.' 

" It was a cruel, cruel hand, that dark hand of the assassin, 
which smote our honored, wise and noble President, and filled' 
the land with sorrow. But above and beyond that hand there 
is another, which we must see and acknowledge. It is the chas- 
tening hand of a wise and faithful Father. He gives us the bitter 
cup; and the cup that our Father hath given us shall we not 
drink it? God of the just, Thou gavest us the cup. We yield 
to Thy behest, and dritk it up. Whom the Lord loveth He chas- 
teneth. Oh, how these blessed words have cheered and strength- 



222 DOCTOR gurley's funeral oration. 

ened and sustained us through all these long and weary years of 
civil strife, while our friends and brothers on so many ensan- 
guined fields were falling and dying for the cause of liberty and 
Union. Let them cheer and strengthen and sustain us to-day. 
True, this new sorrow and chastening has come in such an hour 
and in such a way as we thought not, and it bears the impress 
of ft rod that is very heavy, and of mystery that is very deep. 
'J'lf.at such a life should be sacrificed at such a time, by such a 
foul and diabolical agency ; that the man at the head of the 
Elation, whom the people had learned to trust with a confiding 
and a loving confidence, and upon whom more than upon any 
other were centered, under God, our best hopes for the true and 
speedy pacification of the country, the restoration of the Union, 
and the return of harmony and love ; that he should be taken 
from us, and taken just as the prospect of peace was brightly 
opening upon our torn and bleeding country, and just as he was 
beginning to be animated and gladdened with the hope of ere 
long enjoying with the people the blessed fruit and reward of his 
and their toil and care and patience, and self-sacrificing devotion 
to the interests of liberty and the Union — oh ! it is a mysterious 
and a most afflicting dispensation. But it is our Father in 
heaven, the God of our fathers, who permits us to be so suddenly 
and sorely smitten, and we know that His judgments are right, 
and that in faithfulness He has afflicted us in the midst of our 
rejoicings. We needed this stroke, this dealing, this disci- 
pline, and therefoie He has sent it. Let us remember our afflic- 
tion has not come forth of the dust, and our trouble has not 
sprung out of the ground. Through and beyond all second 
causes let us look and see the sovereign permissive agency of 
the first great cause. It is His prerogative to bring light out of 
darkness and good out of evil. Surely the wrath of man shall 
praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain. In the 
light of a clear day we may yet see that the wrath which planned 
and perpetrated the death of the President was overruled by 
Him, whose judgments are unsearchable and His ways past find- 
ing out, for the highest welfare of all those interests which are 
80 dear to the Christian, patriot and philanthropist, and for 
which a loyal people have made such an unexampled sacrifice 
of treasure and of blood. Let us not be faithless, but believing. 

" ' Blind unbelief is prone to err, 
And scan his work in vain ; 
God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain.' 

"We will wait for His interpretation, and we will wait in faith, 
nothing doubting. He who has led us so well, and defended and 
prospered us so wonderfully during the last four years of toil, 
and struggle, and sorrow, will not forsake ua now. He may 
chasten, but He will not destroy. He may purify us more aud 



DOCTOR GURLEY'S FUXETIAL ORATION. 223 

more in the furnace of trial, hnt He will not consume us : no, no. 
He lias chopen ns, as He did His people of old in the furnace, of 
affliction, and He has said of us as He said of them, ' Thia 
people have I formed for myself: they shall show forth my 
praise.' Let our principal anxiety now be that this new sorrow 
may be a sanctified sorrow ; that it may lead us to deeper repen- 
tance, to a more humbling sense of our dependence upon God, 
and to the more unreserved consecration of ourselves and all 
that we have to the cause of truth and justice, of law and order, 
dC liberty and good government, of pure and undefiled religion. 
Then, though weeping may endure for a night, joy will come in 
the morning. Blessed be God, despite of the great, and sudde., 
and temporary darkness, the morning has begun to dawn — the 
morning of a bright and glorious day, such as our country has 
never seen. That day will come and not tarry, and the death 
of a hundred presidents and their cabinets can never, never 
prevent it. While we are hopeful, however, let us also be 
humble. The occasion calls us to prayerful and tearful hu- 
miliation. It demands of us that we lie low, very low, before 
Him who has stricken us for our sins. Oh that all our rulers and 
all our people may bow in the dust today beneath the chastening 
hand of God, and may their voices go up to Him as one voice, 
and their hearts go up to Him as one heart, pleading with Him 
for mercy and for grace to sanctify our great and sore bereave- 
ment, and for wisdom to guide us in this our time of need. 
Such a united cry and pleading will not be in vain. It will 
enter into the ear and heart of Him who sits upon the throne 
and He will say to us as to his ancient Israel, ' In a little wrath 
I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but with everlasting 
kindness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord, thy re- 
deemer.' I have said that the people confided in the late 
lamented President with a full and a loving confidence. Prob- 
ably no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply 
and firmly imbedded and enshrined in the very hearts of the 
people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence 
and love. He deserved it — deserved it well — deserved it all. 
He merited it by his character, by his acts and by the wholq 
tenor and tone and spirit of his life. He was simple and sincere, 
plain and honest, trustful and just, benevolent and kind. His 
perceptions were quick and clear, bis judgments were calm and 
accurate, and his purposes were good and pure, beyond a ques- 
tion. Always and everywhere ho aimed and endeavored to be 
right and to do right. His integrity was thorough, all perva- 
ding, all controlling, and incorruptible. It was the same iD 
every place and relation. In the consideration and the control 
of matters, great or small, the same firm and steady principle 
of power and beauty, that shed a clear and crowning lustre upon 
all his other ex'cellences of mind and heart, and recommended 
Lim to his fellow citizens as the man who, in a time of unexam- 



224 DOCTOR gurley's funeral oration. 

pled peril, when the very life of the nation was at stake, should 
be chosen to occupy — in the country aud for the country — its 
highudt post of power and responsibility. How wisely and well, 
how purely aud faithfully, how firmly and steadily, how justly 
and successfully, he did occupy that post and meet its grave de- 
mands, in circumstances of surprising trial and difficulty, is 
known to you all, is known to the country and the world. He 
c anpiehcuded from the first the perils to which treason had 
I A^jused the freest and best government on the earth, the vast 
interests of liberty and humanity that were to be saved or lost 
forever, in the urgent impeuding conflict. He rose to the 
iiignity aud momentousness of the occasion, saw his duty as 
Chief Magistrate of a great and imperilled peoyile, and he deter 
mined to do his duty and his whole duty, seeking the guidance 
and leaning upon the arm of Him of whom it is written, ' He 
giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He 
increases their strength.' Yes, he leaned upon His arm ; he 
recognized and received the truth that -the kingdom is the 
Lord's, and He is the Governor among the nations.' He re- 
membered that ' God is in history,' and he felt that no where 
had His hand and His mercy been so marvellously conspicuous 
as in the history of this nation. He hoped and prayed that 
' that same hand would continue to guide us, and that same 
mercy continue to abound to ns in the time of our greatest need.' 
1 speak what I know, and testify what I have often heard him 
say, when I affirm that that guidance and mercy were the prop 
on wliich he humbly and habitually leaned; that they were the 
best hope he had for himself and for his country. Hence when he 
was leaving his home in Illinois aud coming to this city to take 
bis seat in the Executive chair of a disturbed and troubled 
nation ; he said to the old and tried friends who gathered joj^- 
/ully around him and bade him farewell, ' I leave you with 
this request— pray for me.' They did pray for him. And mil- 
lions of others prayed for him. Nor did they pray in vain. 
'J'heir prayers were heard, and the answer appears in all his 
subsequent history. It shines forth with a heavenly radiance in 
the wliole course and tenor of his administration, from its com- 
mencement to its close. God raised him up for a great and 
glorious mission, furnished him for his work and aided him in its 
accomplishment. Nor was it merely by strength of mind and 
honesty ol' heart and purity and pertinacity of purpose that he 
furnished him in addition to these things ; he gave him a calm 
and abiding confidence in the overruling providence of God, 
and in the ultimate triumph of truth and righteousness through 
the power and blessing of God. This confidence strengthened 
liim in all his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with 
calm and cheering hope, when others were inclining to despon- 
dency aud gloom. Never shall I forget the emphasis and the 
deep emotion with which he said in this very room to a company 



DOCTOR GUKLEYS FTXERAL OEATION. 225 

of clergymen and others, who called to pay him their respects Jn 
the darkest days of our civil conflict. ' Gentlemen, my hope of 
success in this great and terrible struggle, rests on that immutable 
foundation, the justice and goodness of God.' And when events 
are very threatening, and prospects very dark, ' I still hope that in 
some way which man cannot see, all will be well in the end ; 
because our cause is just and God is on our side.' Such was 
his sublime and holy faith, and it was an anchor to his soul, both 
sure and steadfast; it made him firm and strong; and embold 
ened him in the pathway of duty, however rugged and perilous 
it might be. It made him valiant for the right, for the cause of 
God and humanity, and it held him in steady, patient, and un- 
swerving adherence to a policy of administration which, he 
thought, and which we all now think, both God and humanity 
required him to adopt. We admired and loved him on many 
accounts, for strong and various reasons. Vie admired his 
childlike simplicity, freedom from guile and deceit; his stauncii 
and sterling integrity ; his kind and forgiving temper ; his indus- 
try and patience; his persistent, self-sacrificing devotion to all 
the duties of his eminent position, from the least to the greatest : 
his readiness to hear and consider the cause of the poor and 
humble, the suffering and the oppressed ; his charity towards 
those who questioned the correctness of his opinions and the 
wisdom of his policy ; his wonderful skill in reconciliating the 
differences among the friends of the Union, leading them away 
from obstructions, and inducing them to work together and har- 
moniously for the common weal ; his true and enlarged philan- 
thropy that knew no distinction of color or race, but regarded 
all men as brethren and endowed alike by their Creator wilh 
certain inalienable rights, amongst which are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness ; his inflexible purpose that what free- 
dom had gained in our terrible strife should never be lost, and 
that the end of the war should be the end of slavery, and, as a 
consequence, of rebellion ; his readiness to spend and be spent 
for the attainment of such a triumph — a triumph, the blessL'd 
fruits of which should be as wide-spreading as the earth and as 
enduring as the sun. AH these tilings commanded and fixed 
our admiration and the admiration of the world, and stamped 
upon his character and life the unmistakable impress of great- 
ness. But, more sublime than any or all of these, more holy 
and influential, more beautiful and strong and sustaining was 
his abiding confidence in God, and in the final triumph of truth 
and righteousness, through Him and for His sake. This was 
his noblest virtue, his grandest principle, the secret alike of his 
strength, his patience, and his success ; and this, it seems to 
me, after being near him steadily and with him often for more 
than four years, is the principle by which more than by any 
other, he being dead, yet speaketh. 

" Yes, by his steady enduring confidence in God, and in the 



22(5 DOCTOR GURLEYS FLTNERAL ORATION. 

complete ultimate success of the cause of God, which is thp 
cause of humanity, more than in any other way does he now 
speak to us, and to the nation he loved and served so well. By 
this he speaks to his successor in office, and charges him to have 
faith in God. By this he speaks to the members of his Cabinet, 
the men with whom he counselled so often and -was associated 
with so long, and he charges them to have faith in God. By 
this he speaks to all who occupy positions of infiuenc-e and 
Authority in these sad and troublesome times, and he charges 
them all to have faith in God. By this he speaks to this great 
people as they set in sackcloth to-day and weep for him with a 
bitter wailing, and refuse to be comforted ; and he charges them 
to have faith in God ; and by this he will speak through the 
ages, and to all rulers and peoples in every land, and his message 
to them will be : — ' Cling to liberty and right ; battle for them ; 
bleed for them ; die for them, if need be, and have confidence in 
God.' Oh ! that the voice of this testimony may sink down into 
our hearts to-day and every day, and into the heart of the 
nation, and exert its appropriate influence upon our feelings, 
our faitli our patience and our devotion to the cause, now 
dearer to us than ever before, because consecrated by the blood 
of the most conspicuous defender, its wisest and most fondly 
trusted friend, lie is dead, but the God in whom he trusted 
lives, and He can guide and strengthen his successor as He 
guided and strengthened him. He is dead, but the memory of 
his virtues, of his wise and patriotic counsels and labors, of his 
calm and steady faith in (^od lives, is precious, and will be a 
power for good in the country quite down to the end of time. 
He is dead ; but the cause he so ardently loved, so ably, patiently, 
faithfully represented and defended, not for himself only, not for 
us only, but for all people, in all their coming generations, till 
time shall be no more — that cause survives his fall, and will 
survive it. The light of its brightening prospects flashes cheer- 
ingly to-day around the gloom occasioned by his duties, and the 
language of God's united providences is telling us that, though 
the friends of liberty die, liberty itself is immortal; there is no 
assassin strong enough, and no weapon deadly enough to quench 
its inextinguishable life or arrest ils onward march to the con- 
quest and empire of the world. This is our confidence and this 
is our consolation as we weep and mourn to-day. Though our 
beloved President is slain, our beloved country is saved, and so 
we sing of mercy as well as of judgment. Tears of gratitude 
mingle with those of sorrow, while there is also the dawning of 
ft brighter, happier day upon our stricken and weary land. God 
be praised that our fallen chief lived long enough to see the day 
dawn and the day star of joy and peace arise upon the nation. 
He saw it and he was glad. Alas ! alas! he only saw the dawn. 
When the sun has risen full orbed, and a glorious and a happy 
reunited peojile are rejuicing in its light, it will shine upon his 



DOCTOR GURLEY's FUNERAL ORATION 227 

grave. But that grave will be a precious and a consecrated 
spot. The friends of liberty and of the Union will repair to it 
in years and ages to come to pronounce the memory of its 
occupant blessed, and gathering from his very ashes and from 
the rehearsal of his deeds and virtues fresh incentives to patriot- 
ism. They will then renew their vows of fidelity to their coun- 
try and their God. And now I know not that I can more 
appropriately conclude this discourse, which is but a sincere and 
Bimple utterance of the heart; than by addressing to our depart- 
f.d President, with some slight modification, the language which 
Tacitus, in his life of Agricola, addressed to his venerated and 
departed father-in-law : — ' With you we may now congratulate. 
You are blessed, not only because your life was a career of glory, 
but because you were released when, your country safe, it was 
happiness to die. We have lost a parent, and, in our distress, 
it is now an addition to our heartfelt sorrows that we had it not 
in our power to commune with you on the bed of languishing 
and receive yonr last embrace. Your dying words would have 
been ever dear to us. Your commands we should have treasured 
up and graved them on our hearts. This sad comfort we have 
lost, and the wound for that I'eason pierces deeper. From the 
world of spirits behold your disconsolate family and people. 
Exalt our minds from fond regret and unvailing grief to the 
coiitemplation of your virtues. These we must not lament. It 
were impiety to sully them with a tear. To cherish their 
memory, to embalm them with our praises, and so far as we can 
to emulate your bright example, will be the truest mark of your 
respect, the best tribute we can offer. Your wife will thus 
pwiserve the memory of the best of husbands, and thus your 
children will prove their final piety. By dwelling constantly on 
your words and actions they will have an illustrious character 
before their eyes ; and not content with the base image of your 
mortal frame, they will have what is more valuable — the form 
and features of your mind. Busts and statues, like their origi- 
nals, are frail and perishable. The soul is formed of finer 
elements, and its inward form is not to be expressed by the 
hand of an artist with unconscious matter. Our manners and 
our morals may in some degree trace the resemblance. All of 
/ou that gained our love and raised our admiration still subsist, 
and will ever subsist, preserved in the minds of men, the register 
of ages and the records of fame. Others, matured on the stages 
of life, and who were the worthies of a former day, will sink 
for want of a faithful historian into the common lot of oblivion, 
inglorious and unremembered ; but you, our lamented friend and 
head, delineated with truth and fairly consigned to posterity, will 
survive yourself and triumph over the injuries of time.'" 

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Rev. Dr. Gray, of 
the Baptist church, closed the solemnities by prayer. The 



228 THE FUNERAL PROCESSION AT WASHINGTON. 

coffin was then closed, and carried out by twelve sergeants 
of the Veteran Reserve Corps. 

ORDER OF THE PROCESSION. 

The following order of procession was strictly carried 
out by the officers in command : — 

Funeral Escort in Column of March. 
One Regiment of (Javalry. 
Two Batteries of Artillery. 

Battalion of Marines. 
Two Regiments of Infantry. 
, Commander of Escort and Staff. 

Dismounted Officers of Marine Corps 

Navy and Army in the order named. 

Mounted Officers of Marine Corps. 

Navy and Army in the order named. 

All Military Officers to be in uniform, with Side Arms. 

CIVIC PROCESSION. 

Marshal. 

Clergy in Attendance. 

The Surgeon-General of the United States and Physicians to 

the deceased. 



TALL 
EARKRS. 


j HEARSE, j 


PALL 

BEARERS 



On the part of the Senate. 
Mr. Foster, Connecticut, 
Mr. Morgan, New York, 
Mr. Johnson, Maryland, 
Mr. Yates, Illinois, 
Mr. Wade, Ohio, 
Mr. Conness, California. 

Army. 
Lieut. Gen. U. S. Grant, 
Maj. General H. W. Halleck. 
Br't Brig. Gen.W. A. Nichols. 

Civilians. 
H. Browning, 
Gcorge Ashmun. 



07i the part of the House. 
Mr. iJawes, Massachusetts. 
Mr. Cofifroth, Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Smith, Kentucky, 
Mr. Colfax, Indiana, 
Mr. Worthington, Nevada, 
Mr. Washburne, Illinois. 

Navy. 
Vice-Admiral D. G. Farragut, 
Rear-Admiral W.B. Shubrick. 
Col. Jacob Zellin, M. C. 

Civilians. 
Thomas Corwin, 
Simon Cameron. 



THE FAMILY. 

Relatives. 
The Delegations of the States of Illinois and Kentucky 
Mourners. 




'>^ 



ARRIVAL OP THE REMAINS AT THE CAPITOL. 229 

THR PRKSIDENT. 

The Cabinet Ministers. 

The Diplomatic Corps. 

Ex-Presidents. 

The Chief Justice, 

And Associate Justices of Supreme Court. 

The Senate of the United States, 

Preceded by its Officers. 

The House of Representatives of the United States, preceded 

by its Officers. 

Legislatures of the several States and Territories. 

The Federal Judiciary, and the Judiciary of the several States 

and Territories. 

The Assistant Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Navy, and 

Interior, and the Assistant Postmaster-General 

and Assistant Attorney-General. 

OfBcers of Smithsonian Institution. 

The Members and Officers of the Sanitary and Christian 

Commissions. 

Corporate Authorities of Washington and Georgetown, and 

other cities. 

Delegations of the several States. 

The Reverend Clergy of the various Denominations. 

The Clerks and Employees of the several Departments and 

Bureaus, 

Preceded by the Heads of such Bureaus and their respective 

Chief Clerks. * 

Such Societies as may wish to join the Procession. 

Citizens and Strangers. 

The head of the column reached the Capitol at 8 P. M., 
passing up Pennsylvania Avenue upon the north side of 
the Capitol. When the infantry reached the Senate door, 
they filed into the yard on the east front, and opened 
column, forming a hollow square in the yard in front of 
the Rotunda. The artillery and cavalry then passed cm 
towards the old Capitol. When they had passed, the 
commander of escort and staff and the army and navy 
ofiQcers passed into the east front yard, the equestrians 
passing on. 

The coffin was then borne into the Rotunda of the 
Capitol, and a Guard of Honor assigned to duty for the 
several hours of the afternoon and evening. 

Never before had Washington beheld so solemn a 



230 DEPARTURE OF REMAINS FROM WASHINGTON. 

pageant as that which moved up Pennsylvania Avenue 
on the 19th of April, 1865 ; a day now trebly memorable 
in our annals as the day when the first blood of the Revo- 
lution was shed at Lexington, the first blood spilled by 
the Rebellion at Baltimore in 1861, and the day when tht 
body of our martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, was 
borne through the streets of our National Capital on its 
way to its resting-place in the West. 

The body remained lying in state in the Capitol over 
Thursday, thousands of persons visiting the corpse. 

DEPARTURE FROM WASHINGTON. 

On Friday morning, April 21st, at seven o'clock, the coffin 
was taken to the depot, and deposited in the funeral car. 
Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Hon. Gideon Welles, Hon. Hugh 
McCulloch, Hon. Jno. P. Usher, Lieut. General U. S. 
Grant, and Gen. M. C. Meigs left the escort at the depot, 
and at 8 A. M. the train left. At least ten thousand 
persons were out to see the departure. A special train was 
provided for the occasion, and the route to Springfield, Illi- 
uois, was designated by an order from the War Depart 
ment, and the railroads over which the remains passed, 
were declared military roads, subject to the order of the 
War Department, and the railroads, locomotives, cars and 
engines engaged on said transportation, were subject to 
the military control of Brigadier-General McCallum. No. 
person was allowed to be transported on the cars consti- 
tuting the funeral train, save those who were specially 
authorized by the orders of the War Department. The 
funeral train consisted of nine cars, including baggage 
and hearse car, which proceeded over the entire route 
from Washington to Springfield. The time schedule for 
the transportation was as follows : — 

Leave Wasbiiigtou, Friday, April 21, 8 A. M. 

Arrive at Baltimore, Friday, April 21, 10 A. M. 

Leave Baltimore, Friday, April 21, 3 P. M. 

Arrive at Harrisburf?, Friday, April 21, 8-20 P. M. 

Leave Harnsburg, Saturday, April 22, 12 M. 



ROUTE OF THE FUNERAL TO SPRINGFIELD, 231 

Arrive at Thiladelphia, Saturday, April 22, 4-30 P. M. 
Leave Philadelphia, Monday, April 24, 4 A. M. 
Arrive at New York, Monday, April 24, 10 A. M. 
Leave New York, Tuesday, April 25, 4 P. M. 
Arrive at Albany, Tuesday, April 25, 11 P. M. 
Leave Albany, Wednesday, April 26, 4 P. M. 
Arrive at Buffalo, Thursday, April 27, 7 A. M. 
Leave BuEFalo, Thursday, April 27, IQ-IO A. M. 
Arrive at Cleveland, Friday, April 28, 7 A. M. 
Leave Cleveland, Friday, April 28, midnight. 
Arrive at Columbus, Saturday, April 29, 7"30 A. M. 
Leave Columbus, Saturday, April 29, 8 P. M. 
Arrive at Indianapolis, Sunday, April 30, 7 A. M, 
Leave Indianapolis, Sunday, April 30, midnight. 
Arrive at Chicago, Monday, May 1, 11 A. M. 
Leave Chicago, Tuesday, May 2, 9-30 P. M. 
Arrive at Springfield, Monday, May 3, 8 A. M. 

At various points on the route where the remains were 
to be taken from the hearse-car by State or municipal 
authorities, to receive public honors, according to the 
aforesaid programme, the authorities were to make such 
arrangements as might be fitting and appropriate to the 
occasion, under the direction of the military commander 
of the division, department, or district ; but the remains 
continued always under the special charge of the officers 
and escort assigned by the War Department. 

The route from Columbus to Indianapolis was via the 
Columbus and Indianapolis Central Railway, and from 
Indianapolis to Chicago, via Lafayette and Michigan city. 
In order to guard against accident, the train did not move 
faster than twenty miles an hour. 

Accompanying the remains were a distinguished party 
of friends and mourners : Judge David Davis, Judge 
United States Supreme Court; N. W. Edwards ; General 
J. B S. Todd; Charles Alexander Smith. Guard of 
Honor — namely: General E. D. Townsend ; Brigadier- 
General Charles Thomas ; Brigadier-General A. D. Eaton ; 
Brevet-Major-General J. G. Barnard ; Brigadier-General 
G. D. Ramsay; Brigadier-General A. P. Howe; Briga- 
dier-General D. C. MeCallum ; Major-General David 



232 MOURNERS >M> TELEIGATSS FRO^l ILLINOIS. 

Hunter ; Brigadier-General J. C. Caldwell ; R^ar- Admiral 
C. tl. Davis, United States Navy ; Captain William R. 
Taylor, United States Navy ; Major T. Y. Field, United 
States Marine Corps. (The foregoing constituted a guard of 
honor.) Dr. Charles B. Brown, embalmer; Frank T. 
Sands, undertaker ; and on the part of the Senate and 
House of Representatives : Maine, Mr. Pike ; New Hamp- 
shire, Mr. Rollins ; Vermont, Mr. Baxter ; Massachusetts. 
Mr. Hooper ; Connecticut, Mr. Dixon ; Rhode Island. 
Mr. Anthony ; New York, Mr. Harris ; Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Cowan ; Ohio, Mr. Scbenck ; Kentucky, Mr. Smith, 
Indiana, Mr. Julian ; Minnesota, Mr. Ramsay ; Michigan, 
Mr. T. W. Ferry ; Iowa, Mr. Harlan ; Illinois, Mr. 
Yates, Mr. Washburne, Mr. Farnsworth, and Mr. Arnold ; 
California, Mr. Shannon ; Oregon, Mr. Williams ; Kansas, 
Mr. Clarke ; Western Virginia, Mr. Whaley ; Nevada, 
Mr. Nye ; Nebraska, Mr. Hitchcock ; Colorado, Mr. 
Bradford ; Idaho, Mr. Wallace ; New Jersey, Mr. Newell ; 
Maryland, Mr. Phelps ; George T. Brown, Sergeaut-at- 
arms of the Senate ; and N. G. Ordway, Sergeant- at- arms 
House of Representatives. 

The delegates from Illinois were : Governor Richard J. 
Oglesby ; General Isham N. Haynie, Adjutant-General 
State of Illinois; Colonel James H Bowen, A. D. C. ; 
Colonel M. H. Hanna, A. D C. ; Colonel D. B. James, 
A. D. C. ; Maj. S. Waite, A. D. C. ; Col. D. L. Phillips, 
United States Marshal Southern District of Illinois, A. D. 
C. ; Hon. Jesse K. Dubois; Hon. J. T. Stuart; Col. 
John Williams ; Dr. S. H. Melvin ; Hon. S. M. Cullum ; 
General John A. McClernand ; Hon. Lyman Ti'umbull ; 
Hon. J. S. V. Reddenburg ; Hon. Thomas J> Dennis ; 
Li3utenant-Governor William Bross ; Hon. Francis E. 
Sherman, Mayor of Chicago; Hon. Thomas A. Haine; 
Hon. John Wentworth ; Hon. S. S. Hays ; Colonel R. M. 
Hough; Hon. S. W. Fuller ; Capt. J. B. Turner; Hon. 
I. Lawson ; Hon. C. L. Woodman; Hon. G. AV Gage 



ALONG THE ROUTE — ARRIVAL AT BALTIMORE. 233 

G. H. Roberts, Esq ; lion. J. Commisky ; Hon. T. L. 
Talcott ; Governor Morton, of Indiana ; Gov. Brough, of 
Ohio ; Gov. Stone, of Iowa, together with their aids and 
reporters for the press. 

ALONG THE ROUTE. 

'As the train moved on to Baltimore, thousands of 
Marjianders assembled by the way-side to catch a glimpse 
of the car which contained the corpse of the deceased 
President. 

ARRIVAL AT BALTIMORE. 

When the Monumental city was reached, an immense 
throng crowded the streets, anxious to do homage 
to all that remained of their noble chief. The arrival 
was heralded by a salvo of artillery, and the large 
funeral procession which, at a short notice, had been pre- 
pared to escort the deceased and retinue through the city, 
formed in column, and the line of march was taken up. 
Succeeding the military was the civic procession, headed 
by Governor Bradford. All the associations of Baltimore 
turned out in full numbers, and the rear was brought up 
by an immense throng of colored people, all wearing 
badges of mourning. 

The cortege moved to the Post-office Building, where 
the remains were placed in state, and an opportunity 
was given the citizens to see the corpse. At 3 o'clock P. M. 
the coffin was removed to the depot, and the train de- 
parted for Harrisburg, amid the firing of minute guns and 
the sorrows of a people who felt that the Republic had 
indeed lost its best friend. 

Governor Curtin and staff met the train on the borders 
of Pennsylvania, and accompanied it to Harrisburg. At 
York, Pa , six ladies, dressed in deep black, were kindly 
permitted by General McCallum to enter the funeral car 
and place upon the coffin a beautiful wreath of white 
roses, camelias, and other rare flowers. Silently they 



284 ARRIVAL AT HARRISBURG — PHILADELPHIA. 

performed their last tribute to the illustrious patriot, and 
when they retired from the car there were no dry eyea 
among the military chieftains who stood guard over the 
bier. 

ARRIVAL AT HARRISBURG. 
Although the train arrived at the Capital of Pennsyl- 
vania during a fearful storm of thunder, lightning, and 
rain, the people were gathered on the streets and lined 
the way to the Capitol building, where the body was 
conveyed and placed in state until the next day, April 
22d, at 12 o'clock, when it was taken to the depot, and, 
amid the tears and lamentations of the whole city and 
surrounding country, placed on the cars for Philadelphia. 
Along the entire route, thousands of people assembled to 
see the train pass by, all business in the towns and on the 
farms having been suspended. 

ARRIVAL AT PHILADELPHIA. 

At half-past four the same afternoon, the train reached 
the Baltimore depot at Broad and Washington. Hours 
before, tens of thousands of men, women and children had 
crowded all the streets leading to this great avenue. 

The Procession was formed, and moved over the desig- 
nated route to Independence Hall, the coffin being carried 
through the square from the Walnut street entrance, the 
grounds being illuminated with calcium lights, red, white 
and blue colors, and the members of the Union League 
standing on each side of the main avenue, dressed in deep 
black, and white gloves, with a splendid band performing 
funeral dirges. The coffin was taken into Independence 
Hall and placed on an oblong platform in the centre of 
the hall, covered with black cloth, and lay directly north 
and south, the head towards the south, and directly oppo- 
site " Old Independence Bell." The lid of the coffin was 
removed far enough to expose to view the face and breast 
of the deceased. An American flag, the one used to cover 



BODY IX STATE IN INDEPENDENCE HALL. 235 

the coffin during the funeral procession, was thrown back 
at the foot of the coffin, and a number of wreaths of ex- 
otics laid upon it. A magnificent floral device, composed 
of a large wreath of brilliant-colored flowers, and contain- 
ing a beautiful American shield in the centre, also com- 
posed of choice flowers, occupied a prominent position on 
the lid of the coffin. 

At the head of the coffin was suspended a highly 
wrought cross, composed of japonicas, with a centre con- 
sisting of jet black exotics. The device contained the fol- 
lowing inscription : 

SE IWI I HIH IIII W I B II W ■ ■ ■!■— — II ■ II III ■II WW IIIIIIIII 



" To the memory of our beloved President, from 
ladies of the United States Sanitary Commission." 



On the " Old Independence Bell," and near the head of 
the coffin, rested a large and beautifully made floral anchor, 
composed of the choicest exotics. This beautiful offer- 
ing came from the ladies of St. Clement's church. Four 
stands, two at the head and two at the foot of the coffin, 
were draped in black cloth, and contained rich candelabras 
with lighted wax candles. Directly to the rear of these 
were placed three additional stands, also containing can- 
delabras vviiii burning tapers; and again, another row of 
four stands, containing candelabras also, brought up the 
rear, making in all eighteen candelabras and one hundred 
and eight burning wax tapers. Between this flood of light, 
shelving were erected, on which were placed rare vases 
filled with japonicas, heliotropes, and other rare flowers. 
These vases were about twenty-five in number. A most 
Calicious perfume stole through every part of the hall, 
which, added to the soft yet brilliant light of the wax 
tapers, the elegant uniforms of the officers on duty, etc., 
constituted a scene of oriental magnificence but seldom 
witnessed. 

The Hall at large was completelv shrouded with black 



23G BODY IX STATE IN IKDEPEXDENCE HALL. 

cloth, arranged in a very graceful and appropriate man- 
ner. The old eluuidelier that bangs from the centre of the 
room, and which was directly over the coffin of the de- 
ceased, was entirely covered, and from it radiated in every 
direction festoons of black cloth, forming a sort of canopy 
over the entire room. The walls of the room presented 
I'ne appearance of having been papered with black. The 
celebrated historical pictures that ornament the hall went, 
with few exceptions, hid from view. The statue of Wash- 
ington, at the east end of the room, stood out, however, in 
bold relief against the black background. The only pic- 
tures visible were the full-length portraits of William Penn, 
Lafayette, Washington, and Chevalier Gerard, and the 
smaller ones of Martha Washington, Stephen Decatur, and 
one or two others. Wreaths of immortelle wei'e hung on 
the black drapery that covered the walls, and were placed 
about midway between the floor and ceiling. 

One of the wreaths that lay near the head of the coffin 
contained a card bearing the following inscription : 



"Before any great national event I have always had 
the same dream. I had it the other night. It is of a ship 
sailing rapidly." 



These words were used by Mr. Lincoln in a conversa- 
tion not long since. 

And thus Abraham Lincoln, the martyr of the nine- 
teenth century, was laid in solemn repose beneath the roof 
which once covered the grand old heroes and statesmen 
of the Revolution. Cold and lifeless he lay in the same 
chamber where our fathers subscribed their names to the 
immortal Magna Charta of our liberties, the Declaration 
of American Independence. On the 22d of February, 18G1, 
he was in that Hall, and under the inspiration of its sacred 



BODY IN STATE IN INDEPENDENCE HALL. 237 

memories, while raising the national flag above its hal- 
lowed roof, he uttered these signilieant words: 

" It was something in the Declaration of Independence, givin"^ 
"liberty not only to the people of this country, but hope to the 
" world for all future time. It was that which gave promise 
'that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoul- 
" ders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. ** * 
' Now, my friends, can the country be saved upon that basis? 
' If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the 
"world if I can help to save it. But if this country cannot be 
^^ saved without giving up that principle. J loas about to say, I 
** ivould rather be assassinated upon this spot than to surren- 
" der it." 

It was proper that Abraham Lincoln, the champion 
of freedom, the martyr to those principles, should rest 
over the holy Sabbath in the sanctuary of the republic. 
It was fltting that his remains should repose during the 
sacred hours beneath the eyes of. the statesmen and pa- 
triots who look down from the walls of that consecrated 
temple, a temple dedicated nearly a century since by our 
fathers as a shrine to human freedom, a shrine to which 
all time would come with reverence and affection. It was 
meet that the Sacrifice of the nineteenth century should be 
laid in awful glory at the feet of his statue whose memory 
we were taught to love and honor in our infancy — George 
Washington. 

At ten clock in the evening, a limited number of visit- 
ors, embracing the City Councils, members of the C«urts, 
and citizens, to the number of two or three thousand, were 
admitted. Mayor Henry occupying a position at the head 
of the coffin, while the following officers of the anny 
termed the guard of honor. 

(ilJAED OF HONOR. 

Major General David ITunter. 
]'rigadier-(jeneral E. D.Townsend. 
Brigadier-General Charles Thomas. 
Brigadier-General A. B. Eaton. 
Brigader-General J. G. Barnard. 
15 



238 THE BODY SEE-V BY 120,000 CITIZENS. 

Tlrinfn(lior-(ipnoral J. (}. Ramsoy. 
Bn^a(lifi--(iciier:il A. I'. Howe. 
Brigiulier-UcMierai 1>. (]. McCallum. 
Brigiidicr (icneral J. (J. Caldwell. 
Rear- Admiral C. II. Davis, U. S. Navy. 
Captain W. K. Taylor, U. S. Navy. 
Major T. Y. Field, U. S. Murine Corps, c 

Six o'clock, Saljbath morning, the 23a of April, 1865, 
was fixed a.s the hour when the remains were to be ex- 
posed to public view. Long before the hour arrived, 
thousands of people were on the streets and formed into 
lines, patiently and silently awaiting the tmie when the 
doors should be opened. The entrances were through two 
windows on Chestnut street, and the exits through the 
windows facing them on Independence Square, temporaiy 
steps having been placed in position for that purpose. 
By this arrangement two lines of spectators were admitted 
at a time, passing on either side of the coffin. So great 
was the anxiety of our citizens to view the body of theii 
late beloved Chief Magistrate, that hundreds of them re- 
mained around Independence Hall all night, waiting anx- 
iously for the doors, or rather the windows, to be thrown 
open. 

At the liour of six o'clock a double line of applicants 
were formed, extending as far west as Eighth street, and 
east to Third street. By eleven o'clock the lines ex- 
tended from the Hall west as far as the Schuylkill, and east 
as far as the Delaware. The rcsidentsof West Philadelphia 
flocked across the Market street bridge by hundreds, 
while the Camden ferry-boats apparently brought across 
the Delaware about one-half of the population of New 
Jersey. So it was throughout the day and night, until 
one o'clock on the morning of the 24th, when the lid of 
the coffin was closed down and thousands of persons 
found tliemsolves disappointed in getting a glimpse of 
him whom they held so dear in memory. At least one 



LEAVE PIIILADELrillA — IN NEW YORK. 239 

Imndi-cd find twenty thousand people passed threugh the 
Hall (luring: the twenty-four hours. 

At three o'clock on Monday morning, April 24th, the 
mournful cortege left Philadeli)hia for New York. As 
the draped cars passed through New Jersey, the people 
of that State evinced the same grief, and paid the same 
honors to the funeral train as had hitherto been done 
by the people of Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

Gov. Parker, of New Jersey, and staff, met the es- 
cort at the State line, and accompanied it to New York. 
At Trenton, Rahway, Elizabeth, Newark, and Jersey City, 
as well as at all the intermediate points, bells were tolled, 
minute guns were fired, and immense assemblages of 
citizens were gathered. 

ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 

On arriving at New York, the remains were carried in 
solemn procession to the City Hall, where 'they were 
placed in state. The interior of the City Hall was 
elaborately draped and festooned with mourning emblems, 
presenting a sombre and solemn appearance. The room 
in which the remains of the President were deposited was 
thoroughly draped in black. The centre of the- ceiling was 
dotted with silver stars relieved by black ; the drapery was* 
finished with heavy silver fringe, and the curtains of black 
velvet were fringed with silver and gracefully looped 
The coffin rested on a raised dais, on an inclined plane, 
the inclination being such that the face of the departed 
patriot was in view of visitors while passing for two or 
three minutes. 

The coffin was laid on the dais in the presence of Gen- 
erals Dix, Burnside, Yan Yliet, Peck, Ullman, Sandford, 
and Townsend ; Admiral Spaulding ; Commodores Meade 
and Rice ; the members of the Press, and a number of emi- 
nent civilians. The embalmers then re-arranged the body, 
which had been somewhat disturbed by the journey, after 



240 ALBANY — BUFFALO — COLUl^lBUS, ETC. 

which the lid was removed, alTordiug a view of the face 
and upper portion of the breast. 

The people were admitted early the same afleruoon, 
and from that time until twelve M., the next day, Tuesday, 
the 25th, a continuous stream passed through the hall. 
At one o'clock the remains were placed upon the hearse, 
and an immense procession escorted them to the Hudson 
lliver Railroad Depot, whence they departed for Albany. 

ALBANY, SYRACUSE, AND BUFFALO. 

At every point between the two cities, great concourses 
of people assembled, and when the train arrived at the 
State Capital of New York, a procession accompanied the 
remains to the Capitol building, where they were placed in 
State. At four P. M., on the 2Cth, they were again borne 
to the funeral car, and the train departed on its solemn 
journey to the Great West. Syracuse. Buffalo, and each 
town and village on the line paid their last tribute to the 
dead statesman. 

CLEVELAND AND COLUMBUS. 
The same sad duties were rendered by the people of 
Ohio, the body being transferred from the train at Cleve- 
land, and also at Columbus, where it was phiced in the 
Capitol for several hours, giving thousands of the citizens 
an opportunity to view all that ri'niained of Abuaiiam 
Lincoln. 

ARRIVAL AT INDIANAPOLIS. 
In Indiana, the State in which Mr. Lincoln had spent 
some ten years of his early life, the most intense exhil)i- 
tions of grief and respect were evinced. Gov. Morton, a 
warm personal friend of the deceased President, joined the 
train at the State line, his suite consisting of his staff and all 
the chief oflicers of the State, military and civil. On Sun- 
day morning, April .3()th, the train reached Indianapolis, 
and though a heavy rain prevailed, the entire population 



INDIAXAI'OLIS — CHICAGO — SPKINGFIELD 241 

of the city and tlie adjacent country were gathered to 
receive tlie remains. The coffin was borne beneath a 
maj^uificcnt arch, into the Capitol, and placed under the 
great dome, the splendid structure being festooned wUh 
black. ■ The preparations here were of the most expensive 
and elaborate nature, and were said to be by far the m.jsi 
elegant and appropriate witnessed on the entire route 
All through the Sabbath the people passed in an almost 
endless line by the coffin, the scene proving one of most 
extraordinary solemnity. All the children of the Sunday- 
schools were admitted, and the City Councils of Cincin- 
nati and Louisville, together with Gov. Buamlette of 
Kentucky, were present. 

ARRIVAL AT CHICAGO. 

At midnight of Sunday, April 30lh, the remains were 
escorted to the cars at Indianapolis, and the train left for 
Chicago, where it arrived at eleven A. M., May 1st, 1865. 

Minute guns and the tolling of bells announced the 
arrival of the remains, and the multitude stood in pro- 
found silence, with uncovered heads, as the coffin was 
slowly borne to the funeral car, under a grand arch across 
Park i)lace. The arch was fifty-one feet in span, sixteen 
feet deep and forty feet high, its centre draped with the 
national flags and mourning emblems, and containing 
several inscriptions, including one as follows : " We Mourn 
the Man with Heaven-born Principles." The remains 
were conveyed to the rotunda of the Court-house. Among 
the mottoes was " Illinois clasps to her bosom her slain 
but glorified son." The number of people in the city at 
the time the proccsssion moved was not less than a 
quarter of a million. 

ARRIVAL AT SPRINGFIELD. 

At eight o'clock in the evening of May 1st, the coffin 
was again closed, and borne to the cars on its journey to 



242 THE FUNERAL TROCESSION AT SPRINGFIELD. 

Springfield, the earthly resting-place of its sacred treasure. 
The next morning, May 2d, the funeral train reached the 
city, and the corpse was conveyed to the State Capitol and 
revealed to the view of the dead President's late fellow- 
citizens. The grief expressed hero surpassed that of all 
other communities. To thousands of the people Mr. Lin- 
coln had been personally known, and their affection and 
sorrow for his untimely death was of a deeper nature than 
that of any of his countrymen. Bells were tolled, funeral 
guns fired, and a universal woe overspread the city. Many 
thousand people visited the Capitol during the day and 
night. 

THE FUNEEAL AT SPRINGFIELD. 

The funeral took place on the fourth of May, and at noon 
twenty-one guns were fired, and afterward single guns at 
intervals of ten minutes. About noon, the remains were 
brought from the State House and placed in a hearse, 
which was surrounded by a magnificent crown of flowers. 
Meanwhile a chorus of hundreds of voices, accompanied 
by a brass band, sang the following hymn from the por- 
tico of the Capitol. 

" Children of the heavenly King, 
Let us journey as we sing." 

The funeral procession was under the imediate direction 
of Major-General Hooker, Marshal-in-chiof, Brigadier- 
General Cook and stafl", and Brevet Brigadier-General 
Oakes and staif. The military and the firemen made a 
fine appearance. The guard of honor consisted of General 
Barnard; Rear-Admiral Davis; and Generals McCalltim, 
Ramsay, Caldwell, Thomas, Howe, Townsend, and Eakin ; 
and Captain Field, of the Marine Corps. The relations 
and family friends of the deceased were in carriages. 
Among them were Judge Davis, of the Supreme Court, 



ARRIVAL AT OAK UIDGE CEMETERY 2-13 

the officiating clergyman, Bishop Simpson, Dr. Gurley, 
and others. In the procession were the Gov^ernors of 
several States, members of Congress, the State and mu- 
nicipal authorities, and delegations from adjoining States* 
The long line of civilians was clo.sed by the Free Masons, 
Odd Fellows, and citizens at large, including colored per- 
sons. The hearse was immediately followed by the horso 
formerly belonging to Mr. Lincoln. Its body was covered 
with black cloth, trimmed with silver fringe. Never be- 
fore was there so large a military and civic display la 
Springfield. There were immense crowds of people in 
the immediate vicinity of the Capitol to see the procession 
as it passed, and the people for several miles occupied the 
side-ways. 

The procession arrived at Oak Ridge Cemetery at one 
o'clock. On the left of the vault in which the remains of 
the President were deposited immediately on their arrival, 
was a platform on which singers and an instrumental band 
were in place, and these united in the chanting and sing- 
ing of appropriate music, including a burial hymn by the 
deceased President's pastor, the Rev. Dr. Gurley. On 
the right was the speaker's stand, appropriately draped 
with mourning. 

The vault is erected at the foot of a knoll in a beautiful 
part of the grounds, which contains forest trees of all 
varieties. It has a doric gable resting on pilasters, the 
main wall being rustic. The vault is fifteen feet high and 
about the same in width, with semi-circular wings of 
bricks projecting from the hill-sides. The material is 
limestone, procured at Joliet, Illinois. Directly inside of 
the ponderous doors is an iron grating. The interior walla 
are covered with black velvet, dotted with evergreens. 
In the centre of the velvet is a foundation of brick, capped 
with a marble slab, on which the coffin rests. The front 
of the vault is trimmed with evergreens. The dead 



244 LAST RITES AT THE VAULT. — REMINISCENCES. 

march in " Saul" was sung, accompanied by the band, aa 
the remains were deposited. Thousands of persons were 
assembled at the cemetery before the arrival of the pro- 
cession, occupying the succession of green hills, and the 
scene was one of the most intense solemnity. The land- 
scape was beautiful in the light of an unclouded sun. 

The religious exercises were commenced by the singing 
of a dirge. Then followed the reading of appropriate 
portions of the Scriptures and a prayer. After a hymn 
sung by the choir, the Ilev. Mr. Hubbard read the last 
inaugural of President Lincoln. Another dirge was sung 
by the choir, when Bishop Simpson delivered the funeral 
oration. It was in the highest degree solemn, eloquent, 
and patriotic, and portions of it vv^ere applauded. Then 
followed another dirge and hymn, when benediction was 
pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Gurley. The procession was 
then re-formed, and returned to the city. 

REMINISCENCES. 

TVe have followed the remains of President Lincoln 
from Washington, the scene of his assassination, to Spring- 
field, his former home and now to be his final resting- 
place. He had been absent from that city ever since he 
left it in February, 1861, for the National Capital, to bo 
inaugurated as President of the United States, We have 
seen him lying in state in the Executive Mansion, where 
the obsequies were attended by numerous mourners, some 
of them clothed with the highest public honors and re- 
sponsibilities which our republican institutions can bestow 
and by the diplomatic representatives of foreign Govern- 
ments. We have followed the remains from Washington 
through Baltimore, Ilarrisburg, Philadelphia, Now York 
Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and 
Chicago to Springfield, a distance in circuit of fifteen hun- 
dred or eighteen hundred miles. On the route million;? 



BISHOP Simpson's funeral oration, 245 

of people have appeared to manifest by every means of 
which they were capable, their deep sense of the public 
loss, and their appreciation of the many virtues which 
adorned the life of Abraham Lincoln. All classes, with- 
out distinction of politics, spontaneously united in the 
posthumous honors. All hearts seemed to beat as one at 
the bereavement ; and now funeral processions are ended, 
our mournful duty of escorting the mortal remains of 
Abraham Lincoln hither is performed. We have seen 
them deposited in the tomb. The bereaved friends, with 
subdued and grief-stricksn hearts, have taken their adieu 
and turn their faces homeward, ever to remember the 
affecting and impressive scenes which they have witnessed. 
The injunction, so often repeated on the way, " Bear him 
gently to his rest," has been obeyed, and the great heart 
of the nation throbs heavily at the portals of the tomb. 

BISHOP SIMPSON'S FUNERAL ORATION". 

" FKT.r.OW-ClTIZKXS OF IlJ.IN'OTS AND OF MANY PARTS OF OUR 

ENTIRE Union : — Near tlie capital of iiii.< large and growing State 
of Illinois, in the mid.^t of this beautiful grove, and at the open 
mouth of the vault which has just rpccived the remains of our 
fallen chieftain, we gather to pay a tribute of respect and drop 
the tears of sorrow around the ashes of the mighty dead. A 
little more than four years ago. from his plain and (piiet home in 
yonder city, lie started, receiving the parting words of the con- 
course of friends who gathered around him, and in tiie midst of 
the dropping of the gentle shower he told of the pains of parting 
from the place where his children had been born and his home 
had been made so pleasant by early recollections. And as he 
left he made an earnest request in the hearing of some who are 
present, that as he was about to enter upon responsibilities which 
he believed to be greater than any which had fallen upon any 
man since the days of Washington, the people would ofler up 
their prayers that God would aid and sustain him in the work 
they had given him to do. His company left your (piict citv. 
15ut as it went snares were in waiting for the (jiiief M agist i-ute. 
Scarcely did he escape the dangers of the way or the hands of 
the assassin as he neared Washington, and 1 believe he escaped 
only through the vigilance of the oHicers and the prayers of the 
people ; so that the blow was suspended for more than four 



246 BISHOP SIMPSON'S FUNERAL ORATIOX. 

years, which was at last permitterl. through the providence of 
(jlod, to fall. How different the occasion which witnessed hia 
deparuire and that which witnessed his return ! Doubtless you 
expected to take him by the hand, to feel the warm prusp which 
you felt iu other days, and to see the tall form walking nmong 
you which you had delighted to honor in years past. But he 
was never permitted to return until he came with lips mute and 
Bilent, his frame encoffined, and a weeping nation following f.s 
his mourners. Such a scene as his return to you was never wit- 
nessed among the events of history. There have been great 
processions of mourners. There was one for the patriarch 
Jacob, which came up from Egypt, and the Egyptians wondered 
at the evidence of reverence and filial affection which came from 
the hearts of the Israelites. There was mourning when Mosea 
fell upon the heights of Pisgah and was hid from human view. 
'J'herc have been mournings in the kingdoms of the earth when 
kings and warriors have fallen ; but never was there in the his- 
tory of man such mourning as that which has accompanied the 
funeral procession and has gathered around the mortal remains 
of him who was our loved one, and who now sleeps among us. 
If we glance at the procession which followed him we see how 
the nation stood aghast. Tears filled the eyes of many sun- 
burned faces. Strong men, as they clasped the hands of their 
friends, were unable to find vent for their grief in words. 
Women and little children caught up the tidings as they ran 
through the land and were melted into tears. The nation stood 
Btill. Men left their plows in the fields and asked what the end 
would be. The hum of manufactures ceased and the sound of 
the hammer was not heard. Busy merchants closed their doors, 
and in the exchange gold passed no more from hand to hand. 
Three weeks have passed. 'JMie nation has scarcely breathed 
easily yet. A mournful silence is abroad upon the land. Nor 
is this mourning confined to any class or to any district of the 
country. Men of all political parties and of all religious creeds 
seem united in paying this mournful tribute. The Archbishop 
of the Roman Catliolic Church in New York and a Protestant 
minister walked side by side in the sad procession, and a Jewish 
Rabbi performed a part of the solemn service. There are gath- 
ered around his tomb rejiresentatives of the army and navy, 
senators, judges, governors and officers of all the branchi^s of the 
government and members of all the civic associations, with men 
and women from the humblest as well as the highest occupation.s. 
Here and there, too, are tears, as sincere and warm as any that 
diop, which come from the eyes of those whose kindred and 
whose race have been freed from their chains by him whom the_y 
mourn as their deliverer. Far more have gazed on the face of 
the departed than ever lodked upon the face of any other 
departed man. More eyes have looked upon the procession for 
sixtceii hundred unlet; or more by niyht and by day, by sunlight, 



BISHOP Simpson's funeral oration, 247 

dawn, twilight and by torchliglit, than ever before watched the 
progress of a procession. We ask wliy this wonderful mourning, 
this great procession? I answer: First, a part of the interest 
has arisen from the times in which we live, and in which he that 
has fallen was a principal actor. It is a principle of our nature 
that feelings once excluded from the object by which they are 
excited, turn readily to some other object which may for the 
time being take possession of the mind. Another principle is, 
that the deepest affections of our hearts gather around some 
human form in which are incarnated the loving thoughts and 
ideas of the passing age. If we look, then, at the times, we see 
an age of excitement. For four years the popular heart has 
been stirred to its utmost depths. War had come upon us, di- 
viding families, separating nearest and dearest friends— a war, 
the extent and magnitude of which no one could estimate— a 
war in which the blood of brethren was shed by a brother's hand. 
A call for soldiers was made by this voice, now hushed, and 
all over this land — from hill to mountain, from plain to'valley — • 
they sprung up, hundreds of thousands of bold hearts, ready to 
go forth and save our National Union. This feeling of excite- 
ment was transferred next into a feeling of deep grief, because 
of the dangers in which our country was placed. Many said, 
Is it possible to save our nation ? Some in our own country, 
and nearly all the leading men in other countries, declared it to 
be impossible to maintain the Union ; and many an honest heart 
was deeply pained with apprehensions of common ruin ; and 
many, in grief, and almost in despair, anxiously inquired, 'What 
shall the end of these things be?' In addition, the wi^es had 
given their husbands, and motiiers their sons. In the pri le and 
joy of their hearts, they saw them put on their uniform — they 
saw them take their martial .step — and they tried to hide their 
deep feelings of sadness. Many dear ones slept on the battle- 
field — never, never, to return again — and there was mourning in 
every mansion and in every cabin in our broad land. Then 
came a feeling to deepen sadness, as the story came of prisoners 
tortured to death, or starved, through the mandates of those 
who are called the representatives of the Chivalry, or who claim 
to be the honorable ones of the earth ; and as we read the stories 
of frames attenuated, and reduced to mere skeletons, our grief 
turned partly to horror, and partly into a cry for vengeance. 
Then, the feeling was changed to one of joy. There came signs 
of the end of the rebellion. We followed the career of our 
glorious Generals. We saw our army, under the command of 
the brave otlicer who is guiding this procession, climb up the 
heights of Lookout Mountain, and drive the rebels from their 
strongholds. Another brave General swept through Georgia, 
South and North Carolina, and drove the cduibincd armies of 
the rebels before him — while tiie honori'd Lieut<'nant-General 
held Lee and his hoals in a dealh-grasp. Then the tidings came 



2!48 BISHOP stmpsox's funeral oration. 

that Ricliniond was evacuated, and that Lee had surrendered I 
'IMio bells rang merrily all over the land. The booming of 
cannon was heard. Illuminatinns and torch-light processions 
niiuill'sted the general joy. and liunilios wvre looking for the 
speedy return of tlieir loved ones from the field of battle. Just 
in the midst of the wildest joy — in one hour, nay, in one mo- 
ment — the tidings rang throughout the land that Abraham I in- 
coln, the best of Presidents, hud perished by the hands of an 
assassin I And then, all that feeling which had been gatheixd 
for four years — in forms of excitement, grief, horror, and joy — • 
turned into one wail of woe : a sadness inexpressible, anguish 
unutterable. But it is not the time merely which caused thia 
mourning — the mode of his death must be taken into account. 
Had he died on a bed of illness, with kind friends around him ; 
had the sweat of death been wiped from his brow, by gentle 
hands, while he was yet conscious; could he have had the power 
to si)eak words of affection to his stricken widow ; words of 
counsel to us all, like those which we heard in his parting for 
Washington — in his inaugural, which shall now be immortal — • 
how it would have softened or assuaged smnething of the grief. 
There might at least have been preparatinn for the event. J3ut 
no moment of warning was given to him or to us. He was 
stricken down when his hopes for the end of the rebellion were 
bright, and the prospects of a joyous life were before him. 
'J'here was a Cabinet meeting that day, said to have been the 
most cheerful and happy of any held since the beginning of the 
rebellion. After this meeting, he talked with his friends, and 
spoke of the four years of tempest, of the storm being over, and 
of the four years of pleasure and j^y now awaiting him, as the 
■weight of care and anguish would be taken from his mind, and 
he could have happy days with his family again. In the midst 
of these anticipations, he left his house, never to return alive. 
'J'hough the evening was Good Friday — the saddest day in the 
whole calendar for the Christian Church — lienceforth in this 
country to be made still sadder, if possible, by the memory of 
our nation's loss. And so filled with grief was every Christian's 
heart, that even all the joyous thoughts of Easter Sunday 
f.iiled to remove the crushing sorrow under which the true 
worsliip|)er bowed in the house of (jod. But the great cause 
of this mourning is to be found in the man himself. Mr. Lin- 
coln was no ordinary man ; and I believe the conviction has 
bet t: growing on the nation's mind, as it certainly has been on 
my own, especially in the last years of his administration, that, 
by the hand of God, he was especially singled out to guide our 
governuient in these troublous times. And it seems to me that 
the h;ind of (^od maybe traced in many of the events connected 
with his history. 

"First, then, I recognize that in his physical education which 
he received, and which prepared him for enduring llerculeau 



BISHOP STMPSOX'S FUNERAL ORATION 249 

labors in the toils of his boyhood and the labors of his man- 
hood, God was givinij^ him an iron form. Next to this, was his 
ideiiti(ication with the lu'urt of the great jjcuplc — understanding 
tlieir ft'elinijs, because lie was one uf them, and connected with 
them in their movements and life. JJis education was simple. 
A few months spent in the school-house, gave him the elements 
of education. He read few books, but mastered all he read. 
'Banyan's Progress' and the 'Lifu of Washington' were his fa- 
vorites. In these we recognize the works which gave the bias 
to his character, and which partly moulded his style. His early 
life, with its varied struggles, joined him indissolubly to the 
weeping masses, and no elevatitin in society diminished hia 
resjiect for the sons of toil. He knew what it was to fell the 
tall trees of the forest, and to stem the current of the swift 
Mississippi. His home was in the growing West, the heart of 
the Republic ; and, invigorated by tlie wind which swept over its 
groves, he learned the lesson of self-reliance which sustained him 
in seasons of adversity. His genius was soon recognized, as 
true genius always will be. He was placed in the Legislature 
of a State. Already acquainted with the principles of law, he 
devoted his thoughts to matters of public interest, and began to 
be looked on as the coming statesman. As early as 1849 he 
j)resented resolutions in the Legislature asking for emancipation 
in the District of Columbia, although, with rare e.vceptions, the 
wliole popular mind of his State was opposed to tiie measures. 
From that hour he was a steady and uniform friend of humanity, 
and was preparing for the conflict of later years. If you ask on 
what mental characteristics his greatness rested, I answer, on a 
quick and ready perception of facts, and a memory unusually 
ti'nacious and retentive, and on a logical turn of mind whicl^ 
followed sterlingly and unwaveringly every link in the chain of 
thought on any subject which he was called on to investigate. 
1 think there have been minds more decided in their character, 
more comprehensive in their scope, but I doubt if there has 
been a man who could follow, step by step, with logical power, 
the points which he desired to illustrate. He gained the power 
by the close study of geometry, and by a determination to per- 
severe in truth. It is said of him, that in childhood, wlwu he 
had any difficultj', in listening to a conversation, to understand 
what people meant, if he retired to rest he could not sleep till 
he tried to understand the precise points intended, and, when 
Uiilerstood, to co'nvey it in a clearer manner to those who had 
listened with him. Who that has read his messages fails to 
perceive the directness and the simplicity of his style ; and this 
very trait, which was scoffed at and derided by his opposers, is 
now recognized as one of the strong points of that mighty mind 
which has so powerfully influenced the destiny of the nation, 
and which shall for ages to come influence the destiny of hu- 
manity. It is not, however, chiefly l)y his mental faculties that 



250 BISHOP Simpson's funkral oration". 

ho gained such a control over mankind. ITis moral power frav© 
liini jjrominenco. 'I'lie convictions of >nen that Abraham Ijin- 
coln was an honest man, led them to yield to his guidance. As 
has been said of Cobden, whom he <;reatly respected, he made 
all men feel and own the sense of himself, and recognize in hi:n, 
individually, a self-relying ])ower. They saw in him a man whi m 
they believed would do tiiat which was right, regardless of all 
consequences. It was this moral feeling which gave him the 
greatest hold on the people, and made his utterances almost 
oracular. When the nation was angered by the perfidy of 
foreign nations in allowing privateers to be fitted oiit, he ut- 
t(M-ed the significant expression — 'One war at a time' — and it 
stilled the national heart. When his own friends were divided 
as to what steps should be taken as to slavery, that simjjle 
utterance — ' 1 will save the Union if I can with slavery; but, 
if not, slavery must perish : for the Union must be preserved' 
— became the rallying word. Men felt that the struggle was for 
the Union, and all other questions must be subsidiarj'. I'ut 
after all the acts of a man, shall his fall be perpetuated ? What 
are his acts? Much y)raise is due to the men who aided him. 
He called able counsellors around him, and able Generals into 
the field — men who have borne the sword as bravely as any hu- 
man arm has borne it. ITe had the aid of prayerful and tliouglit- 
ful men everywhere. But under his own guiding hands the 
movements of our land have been conducted. 

" Turn towards the different departments. We had an unor- 
ganized militia — a mere skeleton army ; yet under his care that 
army has been enlarged into a force which for skill, intelligence, 
efficiency and bravery surpasses any which the world has ever 
seen. Before its veterans the renowned veterans of Napoleon 
shall pale — and the mothers and sisters on these hillsides and 
all over the land shall take to their arms again braver men 
than ever fought in European wars. The reason is obvious. 
Money, or a desire for fame collected their armies, or they were 
rallied to sustain favorite theories or dynasties ; but the armies 
he called into being fought for liberty, for the Union, and for 
the right of self-government ; and many of them felt that the 
battles they won were for humanity everywhere, and for all time ; 
for 1 believe that God has not suffered this terrible rebellion to 
come upon our laud merely as a chastisement to us or a lesson 
to our age. There are moments which involve in themselves 
eternities. There are instants which seem to contain germs 
whic- shall develop and bloom forever. Such a moment comes 
in the tide of time to our laiul when a question must be settled. 
'J'h(> contest was not for the repuljlic merely, not for the Union 
simply, but to decide whether the people, as a people, in their 
entire majesty, were destined to be the government, or whether 
they were to be subjects of tyrants, or autocrats, or to class-rule 
of any kind. This is the great (juestion for which we have, been 



BISHOP SIMPSONS FUNERAL ORATION, 2D I 

fightinj?, and its decision is ut hand, and the result of tlie con- 
test will afTect tiie ages to come. If successful, republics will 
spread, in spite of monarchism, all over this earth. [ExcUvrna- 
Hd^s of Amen," " Thank God!") I turn from the Army to tiie 
Navy. What was it when the war commenced ? Now we have our 
ships of war at home and abroad — to guard privateers in foreign 
sympathizing ports as well as to take care of every part of our 
own coast. They have taken forts that military men said could 
not be taken, and a brave admiral, for the first time in the 
world's history, lashes himself to the mast, there to remain as 
long as he had a particle of skill or strength to watch over his 
ship while it engaged in the perilous contest of taking the strong 
forts of the enemy. I turn to the Treasury Department. Where 
shall the money come from ? Wise men predicted ruin, but our 
National credit has been maintained, and our currency is safer 
to-day than it ever was before. Not only is this so, but through 
our National bonds, if properly used, we shall have a permanent 
basis for our currency ; and they are also an investment so de- 
sirable for -capitalists of other nations, that under the laws of 
trade, I believe, the centre of exchange will be transferred from 
England to the United Htate,s. But the great act of the mighty 
cliieftian, on which his fame shall rest long after his frame shall 
moulder away, is that of giving freedom to a race. We have all 
been taught to revere the sacred character of Moses, of his 
power, and the prominence he gave to the moral law. How it 
lasts, and how his name towers among the names in Heaven, 
and how he delivered three millions of his kindred out of bond- 
age ; and yet we may assert that Abraham Lincoln, by his Pro- 
clamation, liberated more enslaved people than ever Moses set 
free, and these not of his kindred or of his race. Such a power, 
or such an opportunity, God has seldom given to man. When 
other events shall have been forgotten, when this world shall 
have become a network of republics, when every throne shall 
have been swept from the face of the earth, when literature 
shall enlighten all minds, when the claims of humanity shall bo 
recognized every where, this act shall still be conspicuous on 
the pages of history, and we are thankful that God gave to 
Abraham Lincoln the decision, wisdom and grace to issue that 
Proclamation which stands high above all other papers which 
have been penned by uninspired men. Abraham Lincoln was a 
good man. He was known as an honest, temperate, forgiving 
man, a just man, a man of noble heart in every way. As to his 
religious experience, I cannot speak definitely, because 1 was 
net privileged to know much of his private sentiments. My 
acquaintance with him did not give me the opportunity to hear 
him speak on this topic. I know, however, he read the Bible 
frequently; loved it for its great truths and for its profound 
teachings, and he tried to be guided by its precepts. He be- 
lieved in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, and I think he was sin- 



252 BISHOP Simpson's fuxeral oration'. 

cerely trying to briiij>: liis life into the principles of revealed 
reiij;i()n. Certainly, if ever there was a man who illustrated 
some of the principles of pure religion, that man waH our de- 
parted President, Look over all his speeches ; listen to his 
utterances. He never spoke unkindly of any man ; even the 
rebels received no words of anger from him ; and the last day 
illustrated, in a remarkable manner, his forgiving disposition. A 
despatch was received that afternoon, that Thompson and 
Tucker were trying to make their escape through Maine, and it 
was proposed to arrest them. Mr. Lincoln, however, preferred 
rather to let them quietly escape, and this morning we read the 
I'roclamation offering twenty-hve thousand dollars each for the 
arrest of these men, as aiders and abettors of his assassination. 
iSo that in his expiring acts he was saying: 'Father forgive 
them ; they know not what they do !' As a rule I doubt if any 
I'resident has ever shown such trust in (iod, or in ])ublic docu- 
ments so fiecpiently referred to Divine aid. Often did he remark to 
friends and to delegaticms that his hope for our success rested in 
Lis conviction that Uod would bless our efforts because we were 
trying to do right. 'J'o the address of a large religious body he 
replied, ''i'hanks be unto God, who, in our national trials, givett 
us the churches.' To a minister who said he hoped the Lord was 
on our side, he replied that it gave him no concern whether the 
Lord was on our side or not, for, he added, ' 1 know that the Lord 
is always on the side of the right,' and with a deep feeling, 
added, ' But God is my witness that it is my constant anxiety 
and prayer, that both myself and this nation should be on the 
Lord's side.' In his domestic life he was exceedingly kind and 
allectionate. He was a devoted husband and father. 

" During his Presidential term he lost his second son, Willie. 
To an officer of the army he said not long since, ' Do you ever 
find yourself talking with the dead !' and added, ' Since Willie'.s 
death I catch myself every day involuntarily talking with him, 
as if he were with me.' On his widow, who is unable to be here, 
1 need otdy invoke the blessing of Almighty God that she may 
be comforted and sustained. For his son, who has witnessed 
the exercises of this hour, all that I can desire is that the >nantle 
of his father may fall upon him. {Exclamations of 'Amoi.') 
hex us pause a moment in the lesson of the hour before we part. 
This man, though he fell by the hand of the assassin, still he 
fell under the permissive hand of God. He had some wise pur 
pose in allowing him so to fall. What more could he have 
desired of life for himself? Were not his honors full? There 
was no office to wdiich he could aspire. The popular heart 
clung around him as around no other man. The nations of the 
world have learned to honor him. If rumors of a desired albance 
with England be true, Napoleon trembled when he heard of the 
fall of Ilichmond, and asked what nation would join him to pro- 
tect him against our government. Besides the goodness of such 



BISHOP SIMPSON S FUNERAL ORATION. 253 

a man liis fame was full, liis w^rk was clone, and he scaled his 
glorj by b«.coiiiiii<i^ tlie iiatuin'.-; great, inai-tyr for lilicrty. He 
appears to have had a yt range pu sentiment early in puiitieal 
life, that some day lie would he I'l'esidcnt. You sec it, indeed, 
in 1839. Of the slave power he said : 'Broken by it? 1, too, 
may be asked to bow to it. I never will. The probability that 
we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the sup. 
}^ort of a cause which 1 deem to be just. It shall not deter me. 
If 1 ever feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those 
dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty architect, it is 
WHen I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the 
World besides, and I standing up boldly and alone and hurling 
defiance at her vicarious oppressors. Here, without contempla- 
ting consequences, before high Heaven and iu the fiice of the 
world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of 
the hind, of my life, my lihcity and my love.' And yet secretly 
he said to more than one, ' I never sliall live out the four years 
of my term. When the rebellion is cruslied my work is done.' 
So it was. He lived to see the last battle fought and to dictate 
a despaleh from the lunnc (,f Jellurson Davis. Lived till the 
power of the rebellion was iirolcen ; and then, having done the 
work for which God had sent him. angels, 1 trust, were sent to 
shield him from one munient of [lain or sndei'ing. and to bear 
bin) from this world to that high and glorious realm where the 
patriot and the go(,d .-hall live forever. His example teaches 
young men that every positicui of eminence is open before the 
diligent and the wurtliy, to the active men of the country. His 
example urges the country to trust in Grod and do right. Stand- 
ing as we do to-day by his conin and his sepulchre, let us 
resolve to carry I'orwurd the policy which he so nobly and wholly 
began. Let us do right to all men. Let us vow in the sight of 
Heaven to eradicate every vestige of human slavery, to give every 
human being his true position before (Jod and man, to crush 
every form of rebellion, and to stand by the Hag which God has 
given us. How joyfully we ought to be that it floated over 
parts of every State before Mr. Lincoln's career was ended. 
How singular is the fact that the assassin's foot was caught in 
the folds of the (lug, and to this we aie indebted for his capture. 
'I'he flag and the tnntor must ever be enemies, 'i'he traitors will 
probably suffer by the change of rulers, for one of sterner mould, 
whil himself has dei ■■.y snlfei'ed from the rebellion, now wield:3 
t'lie sword of justice. <)ui- country, too, is stronger for the trial 
tiirough wiiich it hns passed. A republic was declared by 
nn.'Uarcliies too weak (o enduix' a civil war, yet we have crushed 
the most gigantic rebellion in liistory, and have grown in strength 
and popuhitioa eveiy year of the siruggle. We have passed 
through the ordeal of a jiopu.lar election wlsile swords and 
bayonets were in the field, and lia\e come out unchanged; and 
now, in an hour of excilement, with a large minority who pre- 
16 



254 BISHOP SIMPSON'S FUNERAL ORATION. 

ferred another man for President, and the bullet of the assassin 
Having laid our President prostrate, has there been a mutiny? 
nas any rival proposed his claim? In an army of nearly a 
million of men, no officer or soldier hns utt(!red one word of 
dissent, and in an hour or two arL(;r Mr. Lincoln's doalh, another 
leader, with constitutional powers, occupied his chair, and tlie 
government moved forward without one single jar. The vvoild 
will learn that republics are the strongest goverinuents on earth. 
And now, my friends, in the words of the departed, 'with malice 
towards none, free from ail feeling o." personal vengeance, yet 
believing the sword must not be drawn or borne in vain, let ua 
go forward in our painful duty.' Let every man who was a 
Senator or Representative in Congress, and who aided in begin- 
ning 'his rebellion, and thus led to the slaughter of our sons and 
daughters, be brought to a speei^y and to certain punishment. 
Let every officer educated at public expense, and who, having 
been advanced to position, has perjured himself and has turned 
his sword against the vitals of his country, be doomed to this. 
I believe in the will of the American people. Men may attempt 
to compromise, and to restore these traitors and murderers to 
society again ; but the American people will arise in their 
majesty and sweep all such compromises and compromisers 
away, and shall declare that there shall be no ])eace to rebels ; 
but to the deluded masses we shall extend the arms of forgive- 
ness. We will take them to our hearts and walk with them 
side by side as we go forward to work out a glorious destiny. 
The time will come when, in the beautiful language of him whose 
lips are forever closed, ' The mystic cords of memory, which 
stretch from every battle field and from every patriot's grave, 
shall yield a sweeter music when touched by the angels of our 
better nature.' To the ambitious there is the fearful lesson of 
the four candidates for Presidential honors in 18(30. Two of 
them, Douglas and Lincoln, once competitors, but now sleeping 
patriots, rest from their labors; Bell perished in poverty and 
misery, as a traitor might perish, and Brcckenridge is a fright- 
ened fugitive, with the brand of traitor on his brow. That will 
be vouched by the angels of our better nature. (Cries of " good, 
good.") 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS MOURNED BY 
TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OP PEOPLE. 

Thus was laid to his silent rest the most illuslriou* 
citizen of the Nineteenth century. No otlier mortal evei" 
went to his tomb amid such expressions of pjrief. Twenty 
five milHons of people mourned him as children mourn tho 
loss of a father. The ciu;mci[)ated blacks felt that they 



LIFE AND PRINCIPLES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 255 

had parted with their earthly saviour, the man who, under 
God, had been raised up to redeem them from oppression. 
And now, as we write, the wail of old England, the sor- 
rows of all Europe, the sighs of every breast which con- 
tains a heart throbbing with the love of liberty, come 
borne to us by every burdened breeze from over the 
Atlantic. The world sympathizes with America in her 
grief, and the world accords to our cherished dead the 
meed of praise, the proud height of fame to which Mr 
Lincoln's pure life, honest heart, and unsullied private 
and public character entitled him before the eyes of man 
and angels. 

In his career we have seen how the flat-boatman and 
rail-splitter of the West climbed step by step until he 
reached the highest round of political preferment, as well 
as the loftiest place in the affections of his countrymen. 
We have seen how honesty of purpose won its way while 
beset by the wiles of political chicanery and deceit. We 
have seen how sterling principle lived down fierce oppo- 
sition until the false and the wrong were forced to yield 
to the true and the just. We have seen a grand illus- 
tration of the practical democratic republicanism of our 
American system, in elevating a man from the humblest 
ranks of the people to the loftiest place on earth. And, 
finally, we have seen how the malignant hate of foiled 
traitors sped the Parthian arrow to the murdering of the 
most illustrious citizen of the Republic. 

"An eagle, tower'ing in his pride of place, 
Was by a raousiug owl hawked at aud killed." 

, But the principles enunciated and struggled for by 
Abraham Lincoln are as imperishable as truth itself, and 
having performed his great mission upon earth, he has 
gone to meet his reward in another sphere, leaving to his 
fellow citizens, and to posterity, the enjoyment of the 



256 FIRST PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MU. IJXCOLN. 

great reforms of which he was the instrument in the 
hands of Providence, and to American youth the in- 
fluence of his grand example. 

THE FIRST PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PRESI- 
DENT LINCOLN. 

The murder of Mr. Lincohi, more tlian four years after 
his induction into tlie office of President of the United 
States, is not the fulfilment of a recent intention, nor is 
the guilt of it confined to the actual murderer and his 
present active accomplices. Soon after the first election 
of Mr. Lincoln, a plot was matured for his assassination, 
which was vaguely rumored at the time of its intended 
execution, but which was never exposed in any formal 
manner, and hence never obtained general credence. As 
we are in possession of its outlines, and the means by 
which it was defeated, the mention of the circumstances 
may now be received with a degree of interest which they 
could not heretofore have excited. It is proper to say 
that we state them substantially as they were reported 
some time ago, by a gentleman who was chiefly instru- 
mental in defeating the conspiracy. In the month of 
January, 1861, a gentleman, holding a position in this 
city, which made him a proper agent to act on the infor- 
mation, was waited upon by a lady, who stated to him her 
suspicions or knowledge — whence derived we are not able 
to say — of a plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln when on his 
way from his home, in Illinois to Washington, to be inau- 
gurated as President. The active parties, or some of 
them, in the business, were understood to be in Baltimore. 
At all events, the gentleman considered that the intelli- 
gence had sufficient foundation to make it his duty to 
satisfy himself whether it might be correct. lie accord- 
ingly employed a detective officer, a man who had in In's 
profession become notable for his sagacity and success, to 



FIRST PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MR, LINCOLN, 257 

go to Baltimore and adopt his own course to detect the 
parties to aud plan of the conspiracy. The officer went 
to Baltimore, and opened an office as some sort of broker 
or agent, under an assumed name. Being supplied witli 
needful funds, he made occasions to become acquainted 
with certain classes of secessionists, and by degrees was 
on free and easy terms with them. He took each man in 
his humor, dined and supped with some, gambled with 
others, "treated" and seconded dissipations in more ways 
than need be expressly stated, until he had secured enough 
of their confidence to bo familiar with the particulars of 
their schemes. Meanwhile it had been ascertained that 
on the line of the Baltimore Railroad there were men en- 
gaged in military drilling. Several other detectives were 
employed by the chief to discover the purpose of those 
organizations ; and, disguised as laborers or farm hands, 
they got themselves mustered in. One of the military 
companies proved to be loyal in its purpose ; another, 
under pretence of being prepared to guai'd one or more of 
the bridges north of Baltimore, was designed for quite an 
opposite purpose. It will bo remembered that some time 
before Mr, Lincoln set out from his home for Washington, 
his intended route thither was published. A part of the 
programme was that he should visit Ilarrisburg and Phi- 
ladelphia. We believe that Mr. Lincoln was not advised 
especially of any personal danger until he was about to 
go to Harrisburg, and then, at the instance of the gentle- 
man referred to, ho was urged to proceed without delay 
to Washington. He replied, however, that he had pro- 
mised the people of Harrisburg to answer their invitation, 
and he would do so if it cost him his life. He accord- 
ingly visited Plarrisburg on the 22d of February, 18GL 
It was intended he should rest there that evening. But 
under the management of " the gentleman," another ar- 
rangement was effected. The night train from Philadel- 



258 FIRST PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MR. LINCOLN. 

pliia to Baltimore and Wasbington left at half past ten 
o'clock in the evening. It was dctcrniined that Mr. Lin- 
coln should go secretly by that train on the evening of 
the 23d ; and to enable him to do so, a special train was 
provided to bring him secretly from Ilarrisburg to Phila- 
delphia. After dark, in the former city, when it was pre- 
sumed he had retired to his hotel, he accordingly took tiie 
special train, and came to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, in 
anticipation of his coming, "the gentleman" had insured 
the detention of the Philadelphia and Baltimore train, 
under the pretence that a parcel of important documents 
for one of the departments in Washington must be dis- 
patched by it, but which might not be ready until after 
the regular time of the starting of that train. By a 
similar representation, the connecting train from Balti- 
more to Washington was also detained. Owing to the 
late hour at which the special train left Harrisburg with 
Mr. Lincoln, it did not, as was anticipated, reach this 
city until after the usual Philadelphia and Baltimore 
time. Mr. Lincoln was accompanied by the officer who 
bad been employed in Baltimore. A formidable bundle 
of old railroad reports had been made up in the office of 
the Philadelphia and JJaltimore Company, which the 
officer, duly instructed, had charge of. On the arrival of 
the Ilarrisburg train, Mr. liincoln took a carriage in 
waiting, and with his escort was driven to the depot at 
Broad and Prime streets. The officer made some osten- 
tatious bustle, arriving with his parcel for which the 
train was detained, and passing through the depot en- 
tered the cars, Mr. liincoln in his company. As Mr. 
Lincoln passed through the gate, the man attending it 
remarked: "Old fellow, it's well for you the train was 
detained to-night, or you wouldn't have gone in it." No 
one aboard the train but the agent of the company and 
the officer knew of Mr. Lincoln's being in it. lie was 



FIRST PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MR. LINCOLN, 259 

conducted to a sleeping? car, and thus was kept out of the 
way of observ^ation. To guard against any possible com- 
munication by telegraph at this time, the circuit was 
broken, to be united when it would be safe to do so. The 
plan of the conspirators was to break or burn one of tlie 
bridges north of Baltimore, at the time of Mr. Lincoln's 
anticipated approach, on the following day ; and in the 
confusion incident to the stoppage of the train, to assas- 
sinate him in the cars. Hence the extra precaution above 
mentioned, regarding the telegraph. In due time the 
train with Mr. Lincoln reached Washington, and he being 
safe there, the officer, as previously instructed, sent a dis- 
patch to "the gentleman" that "the parcel of documents 
had been delivered." The public, and, above all, the 
conspirators, awoke on the morning of the 24th to be 
astonished with the intelligence that Mr. Lincoln had 
arrived in Washington. It may be well to mention here 
that the story of his disguise in a " Scotch cap" and 
cloak, was untrue. He wore his ordinary traveling cap, 
and was in no sense of the word disguised. 

We give this narrative, assui>cd that in no essential 
particular can it vary from the circumstantial account of 
" the gentlemen," to whose precauticMis m;iy be properly 
attributed the frustaliun of the first plot to assassinate 
Abraham Lincohi. In con(irmaii()n of tlie view that this 
plot was within tiic knowledge of certain eminent seces- 
sion'sts in Washington, it n);iy be stated that a gentle- 
man who was a member of the " Peace Convention," 
th(>n in session, heard one of the Soulhern members 
exclaim, when Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Washington was 
mentioned, "My God ! Ikjw did he get here ?" The sur- 
prise was too signifieant to be mistaken, when afterwards 
remembered and associated with other circumstances. 



260 TRIBUTES TO MEMORY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN-, 

TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OE PRESIDENT 
LINCOLN. 

The history of Mr. Lincoln's life would be incomplete, 
did we not introduce several of the eloquent tribii:es paid 
to his memory by some of the most distinguished of our 
public men and pulpit orators. The noble sentences 
uttered by Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, at Bryan Hull, 
Chicago, will be read with intense interest and satisfaction 
by the American people. No one knew the lamented 
dead better than he. There was a unity of heart between 
the two, and Mr. Lincoln rarely took any step affecting 
the interests of the nation without making known his in- 
tentions to and consulting with Mr. Colfax, in whose 
judgment he placed the utmost confidence. A strong 
affection existed between them, each admiring and re- 
specting the other, for the honesty, firmness, and integrity 
of character which have made the names of Abraham 
Lincoln and Schuyler Colfax household words through- 
out the land. 

Ggorqe Bancroft, llic historian, also laid his tribute 
of respect upon the tomb of the martyr, in a eulogy re- 
markable for its elo(pience :ind si'iilenliousuess ; while 
Uenry AVard Bkeciier, the orator of the Anu'ricnn 
pulpit, delivered in the IMyniouth Church, IJrooklyn, a 
sermon on the drath of the President which has not been 
surpassed by :iny fuiK-rni option called forth by the event 
which threw the countiy into nio\irning. 

General IIjram WAMiUiixiK, of New York, one of the 
most prominent men in the North — a man wlit n-as po- 
litically opposed to the election of Mr. liiNcoLN, but a 
man of undoubted patriotism — at an iunnense meeting 
held in memory of the deceased Presidc-nt, didivered an 
address worthy of the dislionuisiied spenkcr and of the 
hallowed character of which he spoke. 

The Orations arc sulijoiueti, and will be found com- 
plete. 



HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 261 

ABRAHAM LII^COLN-HIS RELIGIOUS CHAR- 
ACTER AND NOBILITY OF HEART— ADDRESS 
OF THE HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, AT BRYAN 
HALL, CHICAGO, SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 1865. 

Every seat in Bryan Hall, and every inch of standing 
room, was occupied by the audience, who came, notwith- 
standing the inclemency of the weather, to hear Schuy- 
ler Colfax, the Speaker of the National Ilouse of 
Representatives, speak of the virtues and character of 
the dead President. 

The Chair was occupied by John Y. Farwell, Esq., 
the President of the Northwestern Pranch of the Chris- 
tian Commission. The services were opened with Prayer 
by Professor P. W. Fisk, D. D., of the Chicago Theo- 
logical Seminary ; after which Mr. Farwell introduced 
the eloquent speaker, in a few befitting and appropriate 
remarks. Mr. Colfax Avas loudly applauded. After 
requesting the audience to omit all manifestations of 
applause, Mr. Colfax said : 

HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

" Over two centnrios and a lialf have passed away since tlie 
Rnlcr of any gr.'at nation of the world has fallen by the murder- 
ous attack of un assassin ; and, I'or the first time in our history, 
there is blood on the Presidential Chair of the Republic. 
Death is almost always saddeiiinjr. The passing away of some 
dear IViend from our earthly sight forever, tills the heart with 
sorrow. When it strikes down one who fills honorably a po- 
sition oC influence and power, as in the case of our two Presi- 
dents who died of disease in the White House, the sincerest 
grief is felt throughout the laiul. r>ut when this affliction ia 
aggravated by death coming througli the hand of a murderer, 
it is not strange that the wave of woe sweeps gloomily over a 
nntion, which sits down to mourn in sackcloth, and feels in every 
individual heart as if there was one dead at their own hearth- 
stones. It seems, too, as if this wicked deed was intensified, 
in all its horror, by every attendant circumstance. The fatal 
shot was fired on the very day when t!ie nation's flag was again 
unfurled in triumph over that lort in tMiarlcstnn harbor, which, 
in fcur years' time, had been the cnnile and the grave of the 
Kebcliiou. It was at an hour when the death of the President 



262 HON. SCUUYLKR COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

could not. be of the slightest avail to the treasonable conspiracy 
against the Republic, which its military leaders acknovvledgedj 
at last, was powerless and overthrown. And it was aimed, 
alas, with too sure a hand, at the life of that one man in the 
Government whose heart was teuderest tov>'ards the would-be 
assassins of the nation's life. 

" You may s^?arch history, ancient and modern, and when tlie 
task is ended, all will concede that Abraham liincolii was the 
most merciful ruler who ever put down a powerful rebellion. 
He had so won the hearts of the people, and so entwined him- 
self in their regard and affection, that he was the only man 
living who could have stood in the breach between the leaders 
of this iniquity and the wrath of the country they had plunged 
into bloody war. Feeling, as so many did, that his kindly heart 
almost forgot justice in its throbbings for mercy, yet, knowing 
his unfaltering devotion to his country his inflexible adherence 
to principle, his unyielding determination fur the restoration of 
our national unity, there was a trust in him almost filial in its 
loving confidence, that whatevier he should finally resolve on 
would prove in the end to be for the best. Had he been an un- 
forgiving ruler ; had his daily practice been to sit in his high 
place and there administer with unrelenting severity the pen- 
alties of ofTended law; had he proclaimed his resolution to con- 
Eign all the plotters against his country to the gallows they had 
earned, we might have understood why the Rebel assassins 
conspired against bis life. But no assassination in history- 
Hot even that of Henry IV. of France, for which Ravaillac was 
joru in pieces by horses — nor William of Orange — approximates 
'D utterly unpalliated infamy to this. 

" In the miilst of the national rejoicings over the assured tri- 
umph of the national cause — with illuminations and bonfires 
blazing in every town, and the merry peal of the festive bell in 
every village, our cities blossoming with llag'^, our hearts beat- 
ing high with joy, the two great armies of Grant and Lee fra- 
ternizing together after their long warfare, and exulling together 
over the rrtui-n of pi-ace — we were brought from the utmost 
heights of felicity to the deepest valleys of lamentation. No 
wonder that Rebel Generals acknowledged that it sent down 
their cause through all the coming centuries to shameless dis- 
honor. For, disguise it as some may seek to do, behind the 
form of the assassin as his finger pulled the fatal trigger, looms 
«)) the dark and fiendish .Spirit of the Rebellion, which, baffled 
in its work of assassinating the natiim's life, avenged itself on 
the life of him who represented the nation's contest and the 
nation's victory. As surely as the infamous ofler of twenty-five 
thousand crowns, by Philip of Spain, to whomsoever would rid 
the world of the pious William of Orange, the purest and best- 
loved ruler of his times — who, by a striking coincidence, was 
culled Father William, us we called our beloved President 



HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX's ADDRESS. 263 

Father Abraham — as surely as tliia public offer, with its false 
denunciatious of William's offences, inspirited the murderous 
Balthazar to shoot hiin through the bod}', so surely are the 
Chiefs of this gigantic rebellion of our times responsible lor the 
fatal bullet that carried death to our Chief Magistrate and filled 
the land with unavailing sorrow. 

" Unrebuked by them, history repeated itself in the folbwing 
infamous proffer, published in the Selma (Alabama) Dispatch 
of last December, and copied approvingly into other Kebel 
organs : 

'"One Million Dollars wanted, to have Peace by the 
First of March. — If the citizens of the Southern Confederacy 
will furnish me with the cash, or good securities, for the sum of 
One Million Dollars, I will cause the lives of Abraham Lincoln, 
William H. Seward, and Andrew Johnson, to be taken by the 
1st of March next. This will give us peace, and satisfy the 
world that cruel tyrants cannot live in a land of liberty. If 
this is not accomplished, nothing will be claimed beyond the 
sum of fifry thousand dollars, in advance, which is supposed to 
be necessary to reach and slaughter the three villains. 

" ' I will give, myself, one thousand dollars towards this patri- 
otic purpose. 

" ' Every one wishing to contribute will address Box X, Ca- 
hawba, Ala. 

" 'December 1, 1864.' 

"And, to fix upon them the brand, ineffaceably and forever, 
as the miscreant leaped upon the stage, his shout of Virginia's 
motto, 'Sic semper (i/rannis,' with his own addition, ' 'Die South is 
avenged,' proclaims to the civilized world, which will l)e filled with 
horror at the deed, as well as to posterity, which will ever loathe 
the crime and the cause for wliose interest it was committed, 
the authorship of this unparalleled atrocity. It seems, however, 
but a "natural sequel lo the infamous plot to murder him as he 
passed through Baltimore when first elected ; to the brutalities 
on our dead soldiers at liull Run, burying them face downwards, 
and carving up their bones into trinkets ; to the piracies on the 
higli seas, and attempts to burn women and children to death in 
crowded hotels and theatres; to Fort Pillow massacres, and to 
the sj'stcmatic and inexpiable starvation of thousands of IJn'on 
prisoners in their horrid pens. 

" I can scarcely trust myself to attempt the portruiliMx of 
our Martyred Chief, whose dealh is niourued as never man's was 
mourned before; and who, in all the ages that may be left to 
Auurica, while time may last, will be enshrined in solemn 
memory with the Father of the Republic which he savevl. How 
much I loved him personally I cannot express to you. Honored 
always by his confidence, treated ever by him with affectionate 
regard; sittiuLr often with him familiarly at his table ; his last 
Tisitor on that terrible niiiht ; receiving his last message, full 



264 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

of interest to the toilinj^ minors of the distant West; walkitg 
by his side from his parlor to the door, as he tooI\ his last stepa 
in that Executive Mansion he had honored ; receiving the last 
grasp of that generous and loving haml, ond his last good-bye ; 
declining his last kind invitation to join him in those hours of 
relaxation which incessant care and anxiety seemed to rcndei 
so desirable, my mind has since been tortured by regrets that 1 
had not accompanied him. If the knife whicli the assassin hiid 
intended for (jI rant had not been wasted, as it possibly would 
not have been, on one of so much less ^'mportance in our na- 
tional affairs, perchance a sudden backward look at that event- 
ful instant might have saved that life, so incalculably precious 
to wife, and children, and country — or, failing in that, might 
have hindered or prevented the escape of his murderer. The 
willingness of any man to endanger his life for another's, is so 
much doubted, that I scarcely dare to say how willingly I would 
have risked my own to preserve his, of such priceless value to 
us all. But if you can realize that it is sweet to die for one's 
country — as so many scores of thousands, from every State, and 
county, and hamlet, have pioven in the years that are passed, 
you can imagine the consolation there would be to anyone, even 
in his expiring hours, to feel that he had saved the land from 
the funereal gloom which, but a few days ago, settled down upon 
it, from ocean to ocean, and from capitol to cabin, at the loss of 
one for whom even a hecatomb of victims coidd not atone. 

" Of this noble-hearted nuin, so full cf gonial impulses, so 
self-forgetful, so utterly unselfish, so pure, and gentle, and good, 
who lived for us, and at last died for us, I feci how inadequate 
I am to portray his niiinifold excellencies, his intellectual worth, 
his generous character, his fervid patriotism. Po])e celebrated 
the memory of Robert Harley, the Lord of Oxford, a privy 
counsellor of Queen Anne, who himself narrowly escaped assas- 
sination, in lines that seem prophetic of Mr. Lincoln's'virtues : 

" 'A fonl supreme in oach Imril iustance tried; 
Above all i);nii, .all iingor, ;inil ;ill prido, 
Tlie r.age of power, tlie bhist of public' brpnth. 
The lust of lucre, and the drcud of doiilh.' 

" No one could ever convince the President that he was in 
danger of violent death. Judging others by himself, he could 
not realize that anyone could seek his blood. Or he nmy havo 
believed, as Napoleon wrote to Jerome, that no public man 
could effectually shield himself from the danger of assassina- 
tion. Easier of access to the public at large than had been any 
of his predecessors; admitting his bitterest enemies to his re- 
ception-room alont ; restive under the cavalry escort, which 
Secretary Stanton insisted should acc.iniiiany him last summer 
in his daily journeys between' the White House and his summer 
residence, at the Soldier's IIoni(>, s'veral miles from Washing- 
ton, at a time, too, a.s tiuce uscci lained in the details of thia 



HON. SCIIUYT.En COLFAX'S ADDUESS. 265 

lonnr-orofanizcd plot, dlscovereil sinoo his death, when it was in 
tended to ,<;-;i,-- ;iii(l hundcnll' him, and carry liiiu to the Rebel 

fi-om their escort by iuiticipatiiiir tiieir nsiiai iiour of attendance 
Walkini;- about the <.'rouiids unattended ; he could not be per 
suaded that he run any risk whatever. 

" Being at City Point after the evacuation of Rielimond, lip 
determined to go thither : not from idle curiosity, but to see if 
he could not do something to stop the effusion of blood and 
La.steii the peace for which he longed. 'J'lie ever-watclii'ul Sec 
relaryof War hearing of it, inii)Iore(] him by telegraph not to 
go, and warned him that some lurking assassin might take his 
life. Bat, armed with his good intentions — alas, how feeble a 
shield they proved against the death-blow afterwards — he went 
Wiilked fearlessly and carelessly through the streets, met anc 
conferred with a Rebel h'ad(;r who Inid remained there, and 
when lie returned to City Point telegraphed to his faithful friend 
and constitutional adviser, who tid tlu-n liad feared, as we all 
did at that time, for his life — ' I received your despatch last 
night, went to liichnumd this morning, and have just returned. 
Adraham Lincoln.' \Vhen I told him, on that last night, how 
uneasy all had been at his going, he replied, pleasantly, and with 
a smile (I quote his exact words) : 'Why, if any one else had 
been President and gone to Richmond, I would have been 
alarmed too; but I was not scared about myself a bit.' If any 
of you have ever been at Wasliington, you will remember the 
footpath, lined and embowered with trees, leading from the back 
door of the War Department to the A\'liite House. 

"One night, and but recently too, when, in his anxiety for 
news from the army, he !nid been with the Hecretaiy in tiie 
telegraph ofhce of the Department, he was about starting home 
at a late hour by this short route, Mr. Stanton stopped him, 
and said, 'You ought not to go that way — it is dangerous lor 
you even in the daytime, but worse at night.' Mr. Lincoln re- 
plied, ' I don't believe there's amj danger there, day or night.' 
Mr. Stanton resjJOiKled, solemnly, 'Well, Mr. President, you 
shall not be killed returning that dark way from my Department 
while I am in it; you mud let me take you round by the avenue 
in my carriage.' And Mr. Lincoln, joking the Secretary on his 
imperious military orders, and his needless alarm on his actount, 
as he called it, entered his carriage and was driven by the weJl- 
Ijghted avenue to tlie White House. 

"And thus he walked through unseen dangers without ' the 
dread of death ;' his warm heart so full of good-will, even to his 
eneiiies, that he could not imagine there was any one base eiioui; h 
to slay him ; and the death-dealing bulh t was sped to its mark 
in a theatre, where, but little over an hour before, he had been 
welcomed, as he entered, l)y a crowded audience rising, and with 
cheers and wavintr of handkerchiefs, honoring- him with an ova- 



266 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX's ADDRESS. 

tion of which any ono might well be proud. Some regret that 
he was there at all. But, to all human appearance, he was safer 
there, by far, than in his own receptivMi-ruom, where unkn^WQ 
visitors so often entered alone. He found there a temporary 
respite, occasionally, from the crowds who thronged his ante- 
rooms, relaxation from the cares and perplexities which so con- 
stantly oppressed him, keeping his mind under the severest 
tension, like the bent bow, till it almost lost its spring, and, on this 
fatal night — to be so black an one hereafter in ourcalendar — goin^ 
with reluctance, and, as he expressed it to Mr. Ashmun and 
myself, ojdy because General (irant, wiio had been advertised 
with himself to be present, had been cmnjielled to leave the city, 
and he did not wish to disappoint those who would expect to 
see him there. 

" Of the many thousands of persons I have met in public or 
private life, I cannot call to mind a single one who exceeded him 
in calmness of temper, in kindness of disposition, and in over- 
flowing generosity of impulse. 1 doubt if his most intimate 
associate ever heard him utter bitter or vindictive language. 
He seemed wholly free from malignity or revenge ; from ill-will 
or injustice. Attacked ever so sharply, you all remember that 
he never answered railing with railing. Criticised ever so 
unjustly, he would rei)ly with no word of reproof, but patiently 
and uncomplainingly, if he answered at all, strive to prove that 
he stood on the rock of right. When, from the halls of Con- 
gi-ess or elsewhere, his most earnest opponents visited the White 
House with business, they would be met as frankly, listened to 
as intently, and treated as justly as his most intimate friends. 
It could be said of him as Pyrrhus said of Fabricius when the 
latter, though in hostile array, exposed to his enemy the treach- 
ery of his physician, who proffered to poison him — ' It is easier 
to turn the sun from his career than Fabricius from his honesty.' 
Men of all parties will remember, when the exciting contest of 
last fall ended in his triumphant re-election, his first word there- 
after, from the portico of the White House, was that he could 
not and would not exult over his countrymen who had differed 
with his policy. 

"And thus he ruled — and thus he lived — and tlius he died. 
Tiie wretch who stood behind him and sent his bullet crashing 
through that brain, which had been devising plans of reconcilia- 
tion with the country's deadliest foes, as he leaped upon the 
stage and exulted over the death of him whom he denounced as 
a tyrant, uttered as foul a falsehood as the lying witnesses who 
caused the conviction and the crucifixion of the Sou of Man, 
on the same Good Friday, nearly two thousand years ago. I 
would not compare the human with the Divine, except in that 
immeasurable contrast of the finite with the Infinite, But his 
whole life proves to mo that if he could have had a single mo- 
ment of consciousness and of speech, his great heart would 



I 



HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX S ADDRESS. 267 

have prompted liim to pray for those who had plotted for his 
blood, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !' 

"He bore the nations iifriis, and trials and sorrows, ever on 
his mind. You hm-w him, in a hir^-e dej^ree, bj the illustrative 
stories of which his memory and his tongue were so prolific, 
using them to point a moral, or to soften discontent at his de- 
cisions. But this was the mere badinage which relieved him fur 
the moment from the heavy weight of public duties and re- 
sponsibilities under wliich he often wearied. Those wliom he 
admitted to his confidence, and with whom he conversed of his 
feelings, knew that his inner life was checkered with the deepest 
anxiety and mo.'^t discomforliiig solicitude. Klated by victories 
for the cause which was ever in his thoughts, reverses to our 
arms cast a pall of depression over him. One morning, over 
two years ago, calling upon him on busine.=:s, I found him look- 
ing more than usually pale and careworn, and inquired the 
reason. He replied, with tiie bad news he had received at a 
late hour the previous night, which had not yet been communi- 
cated to the press — adding, that he had not closed his eyes or 
breakfasted ; and, with an expression I shall never forget, he 
exclaimed, ' IIow willingly would 1 exchange jjlaces to-day with 
the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the l*o- 
lomac !' 

" lie was as free from deceit as from guile. He had one 
peculiarity which often misled those with whom he conversed. 
When his judgment, which acted slowly, but which was almost 
as immovable as the eternal hills when settled, was grasping 
some subject of importance, the arguments against his own 
desires seemed uppermost in his mind, and in conversing upon 
it he would present these arguments to see if they could bo 
rebutted. He thus often surprised both friend and foe in his 
final decisions; always willing to listen to all sides till the latest 
possible moment ; yet, when he put down his foot, he never took 
a backward step. Once, speaking of an eminent statesman, he 
said : ' When a question confronts him, he always and naturally 
argues it I'rom the stand-jjoint of which is the better policy ; 
but with me,' he added, ' my only desire is to see what is right.' 
And this is the key to his life. His parents left Kentucky for 
Indiana in his childhood, on account of slavery in the former 
State ; and he thus inherited a dislike for that institution. As 
he said recently to Governor f5ramlette, of his native State, 'if 
slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.' Moving to lllindis, he 
fo'ind the prejudices here against anti-slavery men, when he 
enterec on public and professional life, more intense than in any 
other free State in the Union. But he never dissembled, uevei 
concealed liis opinions. 

"Entering, in 1858, on that contest with his great political 
rival, but personal friend. Judge Dou^ilas, which attracted 
t'le attention of the whole Union, he startled many of his frienda 



268 HON-. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

by the declaration of his convictions that the Union could 
not periimncntiy endure half shive and half free, that ultimately 
it would be cither the one or the other, or be a divided house 
that could not stand ; that he did not expect the Union to 
be dissolved, or the house to fall, but that it would cease to be 
divided, and that the hope of the Republic was in staying 
the spread of slavery that the public mind might rest in the 
hope of its ultimate extinction. And, though he coupled tliis 
with declarations against Congressional interference with it in 
existing States, it was not popular, and kept him in the whole 
canvass upOn the defensive. But to every argument against it 
his calm reply was, in substance, 'such is my clear conviction, 
and I cannot unsay it.' 

" His frankness in expressing unpopular opinions was mani- 
fested also, when in Southern Illinois, before an audience almost 
unanimously hostile to the sentiments, he declared, in the siune 
close and doubtful contest, that, when the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence proclaimed that all men were created free and equal, 
it did not mean white men alone, but negroes as well ; and that 
their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, were as 
inalienable as the noblest of the land. He claimed no power 
over State laws in other States which conflicted with theso 
rights, or curtaile<l them ; but with unfaltering devotion to his 
conscientious conviction, and regardless of its effects upon his 
] olitical prospects, he never wavered in his adherence to this 
truth. And yet, when elected President of the United States, 
l,e executed the Fugitive Slave Lay, because his oath of office 
as the Executive, in his opinion, required it. When urged to 
si rike at slavery under the war power, he replied in a widely 
jii blished letter, ' My paramount object is to save the Union, 
ill d I would save it in the shortest way. If I could save the 
Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it. If I could 
Save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do 
il by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do 
that. But 1 intend no modification of my oft-expressed per- 
S( mil wish that all men everywhere could be free.' And, when 
at last the hour arrived when, in his honest opinion, the alterna- 
tive between the death of slavery and the death of the Union 
confronted him, then, and imt till then, he struck at the cause 
of all our woes with the l)attle axe of the Union, 

'■ Signing that immortal proclamation, which made him the 
Liberator of America, on the afternoon of Januaiy 1st, ISC):?, 
iifler hours of New Year's hand shaking, he said to me and 
other friends that night— ' The signature looks • little tremuh.ns, 
f(ir my hand was tired, but my resnintion was firm. I told them 
in Septendjer, if ihey did ii"t return to their allegiance and 
cense murdering our soldiers, I would strike at this pillar 
of their strength. And now the promise shall be kept ; and not 
one word of it will 1 ever recall.' And the promise was kept, 



HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX's ADDRESS. 269 

and every word of it has stood. Thank God, when slavery and 
treason benumbed that hand in death, they could not destroy 
that noble instrument to whicli that hand had given a life that 
shall never die. A great writer said that when Wilberforce 
stood at the bar of God, he held in his hand the broken shackles 
which on earth had bound hundreds of thousands of his fellow- 
men. But, when baffled treason hurried Abraham Lincoln into 
the presence of his Maker, he bore with him the manacles of 
four millions whom he had made free ; fetters that no power on 
God's foot-stool is strong enough to place again on their 
enfranchised limbs. 

" No man, in our era, clothed with such vast power, has ever 
used it so mercifully. No ruler holding the keys of life and 
death, ever pardoned so many and so easily. When friends said 
to him they wished he had more of Jackson's sternness, he 
would say, ' 1 am just as God made me, and cannot change.' It 
may not be generally known that his door-keepers had standing 
orders from him that no matter how great might be the throng, 
if either Senators or Representatives had to wait, or to be turned 
away without an audience, he must see before the day closed, 
every messenger who came to him with a petition for the saving 
of life. One night in February I left all other business to ask 
him to respite the son of a constituent, who was sentenced to be 
shot, at Davenport, for desertion. He heard the story with his 
usual patience, though he was wearied out with incessant calls, 
and anxious for rest, and then replied : — ' Some of our generals 
complain that I impair discipline and subordination in the army 
by my pardons and respites, but it makes me rested, after a 
hard day's work, if I can find some good excuse for saving 
a man's life, and I go to bed happy as I think how joyous the 
signing of my name will make hitn and his family and his friends.' 
And with x happy smile beaming over that care-furrowed face, 
he signef* .hat name that saved that life. 

" But A oraham Lincoln was not only a good and a just and a 
generoDfc and a humane man. I could not be just to that well- 
rounded character of his, without adding that he was also a 
praying man. He has often said that his reliance in the 
gloomiest hours, was on his God, to whom he appealed in 
prayer, although he had never become a professor of religion. 
'J') a clergyman who asked him if he loved his Saviour, he replied, 
and he was too truthful for us to doubt the declaration : 

"'When I was first inaugurated I did not love Him; when 
God took my son I was greatly impressed, but still I did not 
love Him ; but when I stood upon the battle-field of Gettysburg, 
1 gave my heart to Christ, aiul I can now say I do love the 
Saviour.' 

" The B'ble was always in his reception room. I have doubted 
the report that he read an hour in it every day, for he often came 

n 



270 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

direct from his boil to hifi rccoption room, so anxious was he to 
accommodate members who had important business, and it 
would sometimes be two or three hours before he would play- 
fully say to some friend whose turn had come, ' Won't you stay 
here till I g^t some breakfast?' Uut be must have read the 
Bible considerably, for he often quoted it. One day that I hap- 
pened to come in he said, ' Mr. — has just been here attacking 
one of my Cabinet, but I stopped him with this text,' and ha 
read from the Proverbs a text, I had never heard quoted before, 
as follows : ' Accuse not a servant to his master.' 

" You cannot fail to have noticed the solemn and sometimes 
almost mournful strain that pervades many of his addresses. 
When he left Springfield in 1861 to assume the Presidency, his 
farewell words were as follows : 

" ' My FRif:NDs: — No one not in my position can appreciate 
the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all 
that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century ; 
here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. 
I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon 
me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon 
any other man since the days of Wasliington. He never would 
have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon 
which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed with- 
out the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same 
Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; and I hope 
you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine 
assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which suc- 
cess is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.' 

"Before that murderous blow closed his eyes in death, that 
' success' for which he had struggled was assured ; that ' duty' 
devolved upon him had been performed. But the friends to 
whom with the, ' sadness he felt at parting,' he bade this ' affec- 
tionate farewell,' can only look at the lifeless corpse, now slowly 
borne to their midst. 

" When in the same month, he raised the national flag over 
Independence Hall at Philadelphia, he said to the assembled 
tens of thousands : ' It was something in the Declaration of 
Independence giving liberty, not only to tlie people of this 
country, but hope to the world for all coming time. It was 
tliat which gave promise that in due time the weights should 
be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have 
an equal chance. * * * * Now, my friends, can this coun- 
try be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself 
one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. 
But if this country cannot be saved witliout giving up that prin- 
ciple, I was about to say that I would rather be assassinated 
upon the spot than to surrender it. I have said nothing but 
what I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of 
Almighty God, to die by.' 



HON. SCnUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 271 

"He seemerl, as he thus spoke, to have the dark shadow of 
his violent death before him. But even in its presence he de- 
clared that lie would rather he assassinated than to surrender a 
principle ; and that while he was willing to live by it, j'et, if it 
was God's pleasure, he was equally willing to die by it. He was 
assassinated ; but his name and principles will live while history 
exists and the Republic endures. 

" So, too, in the conclusion of his first inaugural, he appealed 
in the language of entreaty and peace to those who had raised 
their mailed hands against the life of their father-land : 

"'You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in ITeavcn to destroy 
the Government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, 
pyotect and defend it. The mystic cord of memory, stretching 
from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart 
and hearthstone all over this broad land, .will yet swell the 
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, 
by the better angels of our nature.' 

"In the funeral exercises in the East Room, on the 19th of 
April, the very anniversary of the day when the blood of mur- 
dt'red Massachusetts soldiers stained the stones of the city of 
Baltimore, Dr. Gurley quoted the President's solemn reply to a 
company of clergymen who called on him in one of the darkest 
hours of the war, when, standing where his lifeless remains thea 
rested, he replied to them in tones of deep emotion : 

"'Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great and terrible 
struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the justness and 
goodness of God. And when events are very threatening and 
prospects very dark, I still hope in some way which man cannot 
see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and 
God is on our side.' 

"You cannot have forgotten this impressive invocation with 
which he closed his Proclamation of P^mancipation : 

" ' And, upon this last, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- 
tice, warranted by the Constitution on military necessity, I 
invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God.' 

" The solemn words of his last inaugural sound in my ears to- 
day as Iheard them fall from his lips on the steps of the Capitol. 
'I'here was no exultation over his own success, though he was 
the first Northern President who had ever been re-elected. 
There was no bitterness against the men who had filled our 
land with new made graves, and who were striving to stab the 
nation to its death. There was no confident and enthusiastic 
prediction of the country's triumph. But with almost the 
solemn utterances of one of the Hebrew Prophets ; as if he felt 
he was standing, as he was, on the vei'ge of his open grave, and 
addressing his last official words to his countrymen, with hia 
lips touched by the finger of Inspiration, he said : 



272 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

•' ' The Almighty has his own purposes. ' Woe unto the world 
because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come ; 
but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall 
suppose that American slavery Is one of those offences, which, 
in the providence of God must needs come, but which having 
continued through His appointed time. He now wills to remove, 
and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as 
the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern 
therein any departure from those Divine attributes which the 
believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do 
we hope, fervently do we pray, that the mighty scourge of war 
may soon pass away. Yet, if'God will that it continue until all 
the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years 
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the 
sword, as was said three thousand years ago. so still it must be said, 
'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

'•'With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his 
widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.' 

" What a portraiture of his own character he unconsciously 
draws in this closing paragraph. ' With malice towards none, 
with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us 
to see the right?' And yet, they slew him. 

" Bear with me further while I quote the letter, when, in the 
midst of the exciting canvass of last fall, in which he was so 
deeply interested, during the very week that he was being 
denounced in this city as scarcely any man had ever been 
denounced before, he shut out the thoughts of these cruelly 
unjust aspersions to write in this deeply impressive strain to a 
Philadelphia lady, then resident in England : — 

" ' Executive Mansion, Washinrfton, September 6, 1SG4. 

" 'Emza Gurney : — Aly Esteemed Friend : — 1 have never for- 
gotten, probably never shall forget, the very impressive Dcca- 
sion, when yourself and friends visited me or. a Sabbath fore- 
noon, two years ago, nor has your kind letter, written nearly a 
year later, ever been forgotten. 

"'In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance 
on God, I am much indebted to the good Christian people of 
the couatry for their constant prayers and consolations, and to 
no one of them more than yourself. The purposes of the 
Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mor- 
tals may fail to perceive them in advance. 

" ' We hoped for a hapjiy termination of this terrible war long 
before this, but (iod knows best, and has riileil otliei'wise. We 
shall acknowledge His wisdom and our own t.-rrors therein. 



HON. SCHUYLER (X)LFAX'S ADDRESS. 273 

Meanwhile we miist work earnestly in the best light He gives 
us, trusting- that so workin;^ still conduces to the great end He 
ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this 
mighty convuLsicn, wliich no mortal could slay. Your people- — 
the Friends — have had and are having very great trials on prin- 
ciples and faith. Opposed to both loar and oppression, they 
can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard 
dilemma some have chosen one horn and some the other. 
For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have 
done, and shall do the best I can in my own conscience, and my 
oath to the law. That you believe this I doubt not, and be- 
lieving it, I shall still receive, for our country and myself, your 
earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. 

" ' Your sincere friend, 

" ' A. Lincoln.' 

" Nor should I forget to mention here that the last act of 
Congress ever signed by him, was one requiring that the motto, 
in which he sincerely believed, ' In God we trust,' should here- 
after be inscribed upon all our national coin. But April came at 
last, with all its glorious resurrection of spring, that spring which 
he was not to see ripening into summer. 'I'he last sands in the 
hour-glass of his life were falling. His last moment drew nigh, 
for his banded assassins, foiled in an attempt to poison him last 
year ( a plot only discovered since detectives have been track- 
ing tlie mysteries of his death,) had resolved this time on striking 
usurer blow. Victory after victory crowned our national armies. 
A hundred captured rebel banners filled the War Department. 
{Scores of thousands of Rebel soldiers had surrendered, and all 
over the Republic the joyous acclaim of millions hailed the pro- 
mised land of Peace. 

" But our beloved leader was to enter another land of rest. 
Thank Heaven, though wicked men may kill the body, they can 
not kill the immortal soul. And, if the spirits of the good men 
who haveleft us are permitted to look back on the land they loved 
in life, it is not presumptuous to believe that Washington and 
Lincoln, from the shining courts aliove, look ^own to-day with 
paternal interest on the inition, which, under Providence, the 
one had founded and the other saved, and which will entwine 
their names together in hallowed recollection forever. 

" But. in his last hours, all the affectionate traits of character 
which I have so inadequately delineated shone out in more than 
wonted brilliancy. How his kindly heart must have throbbed with 
joy. as on the very day before his death he gladdened so many tens 
of thousands of anxious minds by ordering the abandonment of the 
impending but now not needed draft. With what generous mag- 
nanimity he authorized our heroic Lieuteuant-Gencral to proffer 
terms unparalleled in flicir liberality, to the Army of Virginia, so 
long the bulwark of Rebellion. And the very last official act 



274 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S ADDRESS. 

of his life was, when learning by telegraph that very Friday 
afternoon, that two of the leaders and concoctors of the Rebel- 
lion were expected to arrive disguised, in a few hours, at one of 
our ports, to escape to Europe, he instructed our officers not to 
arrest them, but let them flee the country. He did not wish 
their blood, but their associates thirsted for his, and in a few 
short hours after this message of mercy to save their friends 
from death sped on the wings of lightning, with wielded hands 
they slew him. No last words of aifection to weeping wife and 
children did they allow him. No moment's space for prayer to 
God. But in order that consciousness might end with the 
instant, the pistol was held close to the skull, that the bullet might 
be buried in his brain. 

"Thus lived and thus died our murdered President. But, as 
the rufSan shot down the pilot at our helm, just as the Ship of 
State, after all its stormy seas, was sailing prosperously into port ; 
another, whose life, like that of Seward and Stanton, had been 
marked for that very night of horrors, but who had been saved, 
sprang to the rudder, and the noble ship holds on her course, 
without a flutter in her canvass, or a strain upon her keel. 
Andrew Johnson, to whom the public confidence was so quickly 
and worthily transferred, is cast in a sterner mould than him 
whose place he fills. He has warred on traitors in his mountain 
home as they have warred on him ; and he insists, with this 
crowning infamy filling up their cup of wickedness, that treason 
should be made odious, and that mercy to the leaders who en- 
gendered it is cruelty to the nation. 

"The text of Holy Writ, which he believes in for thom, is in 
the twenty-sixth verse of the seventh chapter of Ezra. ' Let 
judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto 
death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to im- 
prisonment ;' and to this do not all loyal hearts res])ond Amen. 

"And thus, though the President is slain, the Nation lives. 
The statesman who has so successfully conducted our foreign 
correspondence as to save us from threatened and endangering 
complications and difBculties abroad, and who, with the Presi- 
dent, leaned over to mercy's side, so brutally bowie-kuifed as he 
lay helpless upon his bed of anguish, is happily to be spared us, 
and the conspiracy which intended a bloody harvest of six 
patriots' lives, reaped with its murderous sickle but one. 

" But that one, how dear to all our hearts, how priceless in its 
worth, how transparent and spotless its purity of character. In 
the fiery trial to which the nation has been subjected we have 
given of the bravest and best of the land. 'JMie South is bil- 
lowed with the graves where sleep the patriot martyrs of Con- 
stitutional liberty till the resurrection morn. The vacant chair 
at the table of thousands upon thousands tells of those who, 
inspired by the sublimest spirit of self-sacrifice, have died that 
the Republic might survive. (Jolden and living treasures have 
been heaped upon our country's altar. But, after all these 



HON. GEORGE BANCROFT'S ORATION. 275 

oostly sacrificos had been ofTered, and the end seemed almost at 
hand, a costlier sacrifice had to be made ; and from the highest 
place in all the land the victim came. Slaughtered at the mo- 
ment of victory the blow was too late to rob him of the grand 
place he has won for himself in history. 

" ' We know bim now. All narrow jealousies 
Are silent. And we see him as ho moved, 
How modest, kindly, all compH.ssiunato, wise, 
With what sublime repression of himself, 
And in what limits and how tenderly. 
Whoso glory was redressing human wrongs ; 
Not making his high place the lawless perch 
Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground 
Of pleasure. But through all this tract of years, 
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life.' 

" Murdered, coffined, buried, and will live with those few im- 
mortal names who were not born to die ; live as the Father of 
the Faithful in the time that tried men's souls ; live in the grate- 
ful hearts of the dark-browed race he lifted from under the heel 
of the oppressor to the dignity of freedom and of manhood ; 
live in every bereaved circle which has given father, husband, 
son or friend to die, as he did, for his country ; live with the 
glorious company of martyrs to liberty, justice and humanity, 
that trio of Heaven-born principles ; live in the love of all be- 
neath the circuit of the sun who loathe tyranny, slavery and 
wrong. And leaving behind him a record that shows how 
honesty and principle lilted him, self-made as he was, from the 
humblest ranks of the people to the noblest station on the 
globe, and a name that shall brighten under the eye of posterity 
as the ages roll by. 

" ' From the top of Fame's ladder he stepped to the sky.'" 

Notwithstanding the request of the speaker that the 
audience would not applaud, it was impossible to restrain 
them, and Mr. Colfax was repeatedly interrupted. 

HON. GEORGE BANCROFT'S ORATION. 

" Our grief and horror at the crime which has clothed the 
continent in mourning, find no adequate expression in worda 
and no relief in tears. The I'resident of the United States of 
America has fallen by the hands of an assassin. Neither the 
office with which he was invested by the approved choice of a 
mighty people, nor the most simple-hearted kindliness of nature 
could save him from the fiendish passions of relentless fanaticism. 
The wailings of the millions attend his remains as they are borne 
ia solemn procession over our great rivers, along the seaside, be- 
yond the mountains, across the prairie, to their final resting-place 



276 HON. GEORGE BANCROFTS ORATION. 

in the valley of the Mississippi, The echoes of his funeral knoll 
vibrate through the world, and the friends of freedom of every 
tongue and in every land are his mourners. 

"Too few days have passed away since Abraham Lincoln 
stood in the flrsh of vigorous manhood, to permit any attempt 
at an analj'sis of his character or an exposition of his career. 
We find it hard to believe that his large eyes, which in llieir 
softness and beauty expressed nothing but benevolence and gen- 
tleness, are closed in death ; we almost look for the pleasant 
smile that brought out more vividly the earnest cast of his fea- 
tures, which were serious even to sadness. A few years ago he 
was a village attorney, engaged in the support of a rising family, 
unknown to fame, scarcely named beyond his neighborhood; his 
Administration made him the most conspicuous man in his coun- 
try, and drew on him first the astonished gaze, and then the 
respect and admiration of the world. 

" Those who come after us will decide how much of the won- 
derful results of his public career is due to his own good common 
sense, his shrewd sagacity, readiness of wit, quick interpretation 
of the public mind, his rare combination of fixedness and pliancy, 
his steady tendency of purpose; how much to the American 
people, who, as he walked with them side by side, inspired him 
with their own wisdom and energy ; and how much to the over- 
ruling laws of the moral world, by which the selfishness of evil 
is made to defeat itself. But after every allowance, it will re- 
main that members of the government which preceded his ad- 
ministration opened the gates to treason, and he closed them ; 
that when he went to Washington the ground on which he trod 
shook under his feet, and he lelt the repul)lic on a solid founda- 
tion ; that traitors had seized public forts and arsenals, and he 
recovered them for the United States, to whom they belonged ; 
that the capital, which he found the abode of slaves, now the 
home only of the free ; that the boundless public domain which 
was grasped at, and, in a great measure, held for the diffusion 
of slavery, is now irrevocably devoted to freedom ; that then 
men talked a jargon of a balance of [)ower in a republic between 
Slave States and Free States, and now the foolish words are 
blown away forever by the breath of Maryland, Missouri and 
Tennessee ; that a terrible cloud of political heresy rose from 
the abj'ss, threatening to hide the light of the sun, and under its 
darkness a rebellion was rising into indefinable proportions; 
now the atmosphere is purer than ever before, and the insurrec- 
tion is vanishing away; the country is cast into another mould, 
and the gigantic system of wrong, which had been the work of 
more than two centuries, is dashed down, we hope forever. And 
as to himself personally : he was then scoffed at by the proud as 
unfit for his station, and now, against the usage of later years, 
and in spite of numerous competitors, he was the unbiassed and 
the undoubted choice of the American people for a second term 



HON. GEORGE BANCROFT'S ORATION. 277 

of service. Tlirongh all tlie niari business of treason he retained 
the sweetiies.s (»f a most yjlacalile disposition ; and the slaughtt-r 
of myriads of the best on the battle-field, and the more terrible 
destruftioH of our men in captivity by the siuw toiture of ex- 
posure and .starvation, had never been able to provoke him into 
harboring one vengeful feeling or one pur])ose of cruelty. 

" How shall the nation most completely show its sorrow at 
Mr. Lincoln's death? How shall it best honor his memory? 
There can be but one answer. He was struck down when he 
was highest in its service, and, in strict conl'ormity with duty, 
was engaged in carrying out principles affecting its life, its gouil 
name, and its relations to the cause of freedom and the progress 
of mi.nkind. Grief must take the character of action, and 
breathe itself forth in the assertion of the policy to which he fell 
a sacrifice. The standard which he held in- his hand must be 
uplifted again, higher and more firmly than before, and must be 
carried on to triumph. Above every thing else, his proclamation 
cf'the 1st day of January, 18G3, declaring throughout the parts 
of the country in rebellion the freedom of all persons who had 
been held as slaves, must be affirmed and maintained. 

4' Events, as they rolled onward, have removed every doubt of 
the legality and binding force of that proclamation. The coun- 
try and the rebel government have each laid claim to the public 
service of the slave, and yet but one of the two can have a right- 
ful claim to such service. That rightful claim belongs to the 
United States, because every one born on their soil, with the 
few exceptions of the children of travelers and transient resi- 
dents, owes them a [jrimary allegiance. Every one so born has 
been counted among those represented in Congress; every slave 
has ever been represented in Congress — imperfectly and wrongly 
it may be — but still has been counted and represented. The 
slave born on our soil always owed allegiance to the General 
Government. It may in time past have been a qualified alle- 
giance, manifested through his master, as the allegiance of a 
ward through its guardian or of an infant through its parent. 
But when the master became false to his allegiance the slave 
stood face to face with his country, and his allegiance, which 
may before have been a qualified one, became direct and imme- 
diate. His chains fell ofl", and he stood at once in the presence 
of the nation, bound, like the rest of us, to its public defence. Mr. 
Lincoln's proclamation did but take notice of the already exist- 
ing right of the bondman to freedom. The treason of the master 
made it a public crime for the slave to continue his obedi^n^e; 
the treason of a Slate set free the collected bondmen of that 
State. 

"This doctrine is supported by the analogy of precedents. 
In the times of feudalism the treason of the lord of the manor 
deprived him of his serfs; the spurious feudalism that existed 
among us differs iu many respects from the feudalism of the mid- 



278 noN. georgp: Bancroft's oration. 

die ages, but so far the precedent runs parallel with the present 
case — for treason the master then, for treason the master now, 
loses his slaves. 

"In the middle ages the sovereign appointed another lord 
over the serfs and the land which they cultivated : in our day the 
sovereign makes them masters of their own persons, lords over 
themselves. 

" It has been said that we are at war, and that emancipation 
is not a belligerent right. The objection disappears bifore 
analysis. In a war between independent powers the invading 
foreigner invites to his standard all who will give him aid, 
whether bond or free, and he rewards them according to his 
ability and his pleasure with gifts or freedom ; but when at a 
peace he withdraws from the invaded country he must take his 
aiders and comforters with him; or if he leaves them behind, 
where he has no court to enforce his decrees, he can give them 
uo security, unless it be by the stipulations of a treaty. In a 
civil war it is altogether different. There, when rebellion is 
crushed, the old government is restored, and its courts resume 
their jurisdiction. So it is with us ; the United States have 
courts of their own, that must punish the guilt of treason and 
vindicate the freedom of persons whom the fact of rebellion has 
Bet free. 

" Nor may it be said, that because slavery existed in most of 
the States when the Union was formed, it cannot rightfully bo 
interfered with now. A change has taken place, such as Madison 
foresaw, and for which he pointed out the remedy. The consti- 
tutions of States had been transformed before the plotters of 
treason carried them away into rebellion. When the Federal 
Constitution was formed, general emancipation was thought to 
be near : and everywhere the respective legislatures had au- 
thority, in the exercise of their ordinary functions, to do away 
with slavery ; since that time the attempt has been made in 
what are called Slave States to make the condition of slavery 
perpetual ; and events have proved with clearness of demon- 
stration, that a constitution which seeks to continue a caste of 
hereditary bondmen through endless generations is inconsistent 
with the existence of republican institutions. So, then, the 
new President and the people of the United States must insist 
that the proclamation of freemen shall stand as a reality. And 
moreover, the people must never cease to insist that the ccaisti- 
tution shall be so amended as utterly to prohibit slavery on any 
l)art of our soil for evermore. 

" Alas! that a State in our vicinity should withhold its assci't 
to this last beneficent measure ; its refusal was an encourage- 
ment to our enemies equal to the gain of a pitched battle, and 
delays the only hopeful method of pacilication. The removal of 
the cause of the rebellion is not otdy demanded by justice; it is 
the policy of mercy, making room for a wider clemency ; it is 



HON. GEOKGE BANCROFT'S ORATION. 21d 

the part of order against a chaos of controversy ; its success 
brings with it true reconcilement, a lasting peace, a continuous 
growth of confidence through an assimilation of the social 
condition. Here is the fitting expression of the mourning of 
to-day. And let no lover of his country say that this warning 
is uncalled for. The cry is delusive that slavery is dead. Even 
now it is nerving itself for a fresh struggle for continuance. 

"No sentiment of despair may mix with our sorrow. We 
owe it to the memory of the dead, we owe it to the cause of 
popular liberty throughout the world, that the sudden crime 
which has taktni the life of the President of the United States 
shall not produce the least impediment in the smooth course of 
public affairs. This great city, in the midst of unexampled em- 
blems of deeply-seated grief, has sustained itself with composure 
and magnanimity. It has nobly done its part in guarding 
against the derangement of business or the slightest shock to 
public credit. The enemies of the republic put it to the severest 
trial, but the voice of faction has not been heard — doubt and 
despondency have been unknown. In serene majesty the coun- 
try rises in the beauty and strength and hope of youth, and 
proves to the world the quiet energy and the durability of insti- 
tutions growing out of the reason and afi'ection of the people. 

" Heaven has willed it that the United States shall live. The 
nations of the earth cannot spare them. All the worn-out aris- 
tocracies of Europe saw in the spurious feudalism of slaveholding 
their strongest outpost, and banded themselves together with 
the deadly enemies of our national life. If the Old World will 
discuss the respective advantages of oligarchy or equality ; of 
the union of church and state, or the rightful freedom of re- 
ligion ; of land accessible to the many or of land monopolized 
by an ever-decreasing number of the few, the United States 
must live to control the decision by their quiet and unobtrusive 
example. It has often and truly been observed that the trust 
and afl'ectiou of the masses gather naturally round an individual ; 
if the inquiry is made whether the man so trusted and beloved 
shall elicit from the reason of the people enduring institutions 
of their own, or shall sequester political power for a superintend- 
ing dynasty, the United States must live to solve the problem. 
If a question is raised on the respective merits of Timoleon or 
Julius Cesar, of Washington or Nai'Oleon, the United States 
must be there to call to mind that there were twelve Cicsars, 
most of them the opprobrium of the human race, and to contrast 
with them the line of American presidents. 

"The duty of the hour is incomplete, our mourning is insin- 
cere if, while we express unwavering trust in the great principles 
that underlie our government, we do not also give our support 
to the man to whom the people have entrusted its administration. 

" Andkf.w Johnson is now, by the constitution, the President 
of the United States, and he stands before the world as the most 



280 HENRY WARD BEECIIER'S TRIBUTE. 

conspicuous representative of the industrial classes. Left an 
orphan at four years ol J, poverty and toil wore his steps to honor. 
His youth was not passed in llie halls of colleges; ne\erthel('ss 
he has received a thorough political education in statesmanship 
in the school of the people and by long experience of public life. 
A village functionary; member successively of each branch of 
the Tennessee legislature, hearing with a thrill of joy the words: 
''I'he Union, it must be preserved;' a representative in Congnsa 
for successive years ; Governor of the great State of Tennessee, 
approved as its Governor by re-election ; he was at the opening 
of the Rebellion a Senator from that State in Congress. Then 
at the Capitol, when Senators, unrebuked bj the governnuMit, 
sent word by telegram to seize forts and arsenals, he alone from 
that Southern region told them what the government did not 
dare to tell them, that they were traitors, and deserved the 
punishment of treason. Undismayed by a perpetual purpose of 
pul)lic enemies to take his life, bearing up against the still greater 
trial of the persecution of his wife and children, in due time he 
went back to his State, determined to restore it to the Union, or 
die with the American flag for his winding sheet. And now, at 
the call of the United States, he has returned to Washington a3 
a concpieror, with 'I'ennessee as a Free State for Ids trophy. It 
remains for him to consummate the vindication of the Union. 

"To that Union Abraham Lincoln has fallen a martyr. Ilia 
death, which was meant to sever it beyond repair, binds it more 
closely and more firmly than ever. The blow aimed at him, 
was aimed not at the native of Kentucky, not at the citizen of 
Illinois, but at the nnm who, as PresiJent, in the executive 
branch of the government, stood as the representative of every 
man in the United States. The object of the crime was the life 
of the whole people; and it wounds the atfections of the whole 
people. From Maine to the southwest boundary on the Pacific, 
it makes us one. The country may have needed an imperishable 
grief to touch its inmost feeling. 'I'he grave that receives the 
remains of Lincoln, receives the martyr to the Union ; the 
monument which will rise over his body will bear witness to the 
Union ; his enduring memory will assist during countless ages 
to bind the States together, and. to incite to the love of our one 
undivided, individual country. Peace to the ashes of our de- 
parted friend, the friend of his country and his race. Happy 
was his life, for he was the restorer of the republic; he was 
happy in his death, for the manner of his end will plead forever 
for the union of the Statis and the freedom of man." 



HENRY WARD BEECHER'S TRIBUTE. 

On Sunday, April 23d, 18G5, the Plymouth street 
Church, Brooklyn, vviis lilluU to overflowing long before 



HENRY WARD BEECH ER'3 SERMON. 281 

the hour of service, it having been announced that Mr. 
Beecher '.vould deliver an appropriate sermon on the event 
which had cast tlie nation into mourning. Thousands 
were turned away, and hundreds hung about the outer 
door in the vain hope of hearing. The church was very 
neatly and effectively draped in black and white, and upon 
the pastor's desk was placed a basket of beautiful flowers. 
At half-past ten Mr. Beecher went to his platform, the 
whole of which was occupied by men and women, while 
small boys fringed the front. 

After the reading of the 90th Psalm, and conducting the 
ordinary services of invocation and praise, Mr. Beecher 
delivered the following 

SERMON, 

Taking for his text the first five verses of the last chap- 
ter of Deuteronomy: 

1. Anil Moses went up frnm tliR plains of Moab, nnto the Mountains of Nebo, to tiio 
top (if PIsgali, tliat is over against Jericho; and the Lord sliowod him the land of 
Oiload, nnto Dan. 

•2. And all Naiihtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of 
Jnil.ih, unto thu utmost sea. 

3. And the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, and the city of palm trees, 
nnto Zoar. 

4. And the Lord said unto him. This is the land which I sware unto Abrah.am, unto 
Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying I will give it unto thy seed; 1 have caused thee to see 
it with thine eyes, but thou slialt not go over thither. 

6. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to 
the word of the Lord. 

•' There is no historic fijrure more noble than that of tho Jewish 
lawfriver. After uumy thousand years, the figure of Moses is 
not diminished, but stands up af^aiiist the background of early 
days, distinct and individual as it he Hvcd but yesterday. There 
is scarcely another event in history more touching than his 
death. lie had borno tlie great burdens of state for forty years, 
shaped the Jews to a nation, filled out their civil and religious 
polity, administered their laws, and guided their steps, or dwelt 
with them in all their sojourning in the wilderness, had mourned 
in their punishment, kept step with their marches and led them 
in wars, until the end of their labors drew nigh, the last stages 
were reached, and Jordan only lay between them and the prom- 
ised land. 

•'The Promised Land! Oh, what yearnings had heaved his 
breast for that Divinely promised place ! He had dreamed of it 
by night and mused by day ; it was holy, and endeared as God's 
favored spot; it was to be the cradle of an illustrious history. 



282 HENRY WARD BEECHER'S SERMON". 

All his lonj^, laborious and now weary life, ho bad nimcd at this 
as the consiininiation of every desire, the reward of every toil and 
pain. Then came the word of the Lord to him, ' 'J'hou must not 
go over. Get thee up into the mountain, look upon it and die.' 
From that silent summit the hoary leader gazed to the North, 
to the South, to the West, with hungry eyes. The dim outlines 
rose up, the hazy recesses spoke of quiet valleys. With eager 
longing, with sad resignation, he looked upon the promised land, 
that was now the forbidden land. It was a moment's anguish. 
He forgot all his personal wants and drank in the vision of his 
people's home. His work was done. Tliere lay God's promise 
fulfilled. There was the seat of coming Jerusalem, there the city 
of Jehovah's King, the sphere of judges and prophets, the mount 
of sorrow and salvation, the country whence were to fly blessings 
to all mankind. Joy chased sadness from every feature, and the 
prophet lay him down and died. 

"Again, a great leader of the people has passed through toil, 
sorrow, battle and war, and came near to the promised land of 
peace, into which he might not pass over. Who shall recount 
our martyr's sufferings for the people? Since the November of 
18G0, his horizon has been black with storms. By day and by 
night he trod its way of danger and darkness. On his shoulders 
rested a Government, dearer to him than his own life. At its 
life millions were striking at home ; upon us foreign eyes were 
lowered, and it stood like a lone island in a sea full of storms, 
and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour it. Upon 
thousands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have rested, but 
upon not one such and in such measure, as upon that simple, 
truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. Never 
rising to the enthusiasm of more impassioned natures in hours 
of hope, and never sinking with the mercurial in the hours of 
defeat to the depths of despondency, he held on with immovable 
patience and fortitude, putting caution against hope that it 
might not be prciriature, and hope against caution that it might 
riot yield to dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly through 
four black and dreadful purgatorial years, when God was 
cleansing the sins of this people as by f:re. 

"At last the watchman beheld the grey dawn. The moun- 
tains began to give forth their forms from out the darkness, and 
the Last came rushing toward us with arms full of joy tor 
all our sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceedingly 
that had sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could bring to no 
other heart such joy, such rest, such honor, such trust, su<..h 
gratitude. He but looked upon it as Moses looked upon the 
promised land. Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that he 
had gone from among us. Not thine the sorrow, but ours. 
Sainted soul, thou hast indeed entered the promised rest, while 
wo are yet on the march. To us remains the rocking of the 
deep, the storm upon the land, days of duty and nights of witch- 



HENRY WARD BEECnER'S SERMON. 283 

ing ; but thou art splicrecl high above all rliirkness and fear, be- 
yond all sorrow or weariness, liest, oh weary heart ! Rejoice 
exceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered. Thou hast belicld 
Him who invariably led thee in this great wilderness. Thou 
standest among the elect ; around thee are the royal men that 
have ennobled human life in every age ; kingly art thou, with 
glory on thy brow as a diadem, and joy is upon thee for evermore 1 

" Over all this land, over all the little cloud of years that now 
from thine infinite horizon waver back from thee as a spark, thoii 
art lifted up as high as the star is above the clouds that hide us, 
but never reach it. In the goodly company of Mount Ziou thou 
shall And that rest which so many have sought in vain, and thy 
name, an everlasting name in heaven, shall flourish in fragrance 
and beanty as long as men shall last upon the earth, or hearts 
remain to revere truth, fidelity and goodness. Never did two 
such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere as the joy and 
sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy was as sudden as 
if no man had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had fallen 
from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept business from 
its moorings, and ran down through the land in irresistible 
course. Men wept and embraced each other; they sang or 
prayed, or, deeper yet, could only think thanksgiving and weep 
gladness. 

" That peace was sure, that Government was firmer than ever, 
the land was cleansed of plague, that ages were opening to our 
footsteps and we were to begin a march of blessings, that blood 
was staunched and scowling enmities sinking like spent storms 
beneath the horizon ; that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much 
gained, was to rise up in unexampled honor among the nations of 
the earth — these thoughts, and that undistinguishable throng of 
fancies, and hopes, and desires, and yearnings, that filled the 
soul with tremblings like the heated air of midsummer days — all 
these kindled up such a surge of joy as no words may describe. 
In an hour, joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam, or breath. 
A sorrow came that swept through the land, as huge storms sweep 
through the forest and field, rolling thunder along the skies, dis- 
heveling the flames and daunting every singer in the thicket or 
forest, and pouring blackness and darkness across the land and 
up the mountains. Did ever so many hearts in so brief a time 
touch two such boundless feelings ? It was the uttermost of 
joy and the uttermost of 8orrow-;-noon and midnight, without 
space between. 

" The blow brouglit not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that 
at first it stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened 
at midnight by an earthquake, and bewildered to find every 
thing that tliey were accustomed to trust wavering and falling. 
The very earth was no longer solid. The first feeling was the 
least. Men waited to get strength to feel. They wandered in 
the street as if groping after some impending dread or unde 



281 HENRY WAED BEECRERS SERMON. 

vploped sorrow. They met each other as if each would ask the 
other, 'Am I awake, or do I dream ?' There was a piteous help- 
lessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. Other and com- 
mon griefs belong to some one in chief, they are private prop- 
erty ; but this was each man's and every man's. Every virtuous 
household in the land felt as if its first-born were gone. Men 
took it home. They were bereaved, and walked for days as if a 
corpse lay unburied in their dwellings. There was nothing else 
to think of; they could speak of nothing but that, and yet of that 
they could speak only falteringly. All business was laid aside, 
pleasure forgot to smile. 

"The city for nearly a week ceased to roar, and the great 
Leviathan laid down and was still. Even Avarice stood still, 
and Greed was strangely moved to generous sympathy with 
universal sorrow. Rear to his name monuments, found charita- 
ble institutions, and with his name above their heights, but no 
monument will ever ecpial the universal, spontaneous and 
snl)liHie sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and parties, 
and coviM-ed up animosities, and in an hour brought a divided 
people with unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish ! 
For myself, I cannot yet command that quietness of spirit needed 
for a just and temperate delineation of a man whom goodness 
has made great. I pass, then, to some considerations aside from 
the martyr President's character. And. first, let us not mourn 
that his departure was so sudden, nor fill our imagination with 
horror at its method. When good men pray for deliverance 
from hidden death, it is only that they may not be plunged, 
without preparation and all disrobed, into the presence of the 
Judge. 

" Men long eluding and evading sorrow, when suddenlj over- 
taken, seem enchanted to make it great to the uttermost — a 
hal)it which is not Christian, although it is doubtless natural. 
When one is ready to depart, suddenness is a blessing. It is a 
painful sight to see a tree overthrown by a tornado, wrenched 
from its foundations and broken down like a reed ; but it is yet 
more painful to see a vast and venerable tree lingering with vain 
strife, when age and infirmity have marked it for destruction. 
The process of decay is a spectacle humiliating and painful ; but 
it seems good and grand for one to go from duty done with pulse 
high, with strength full and nerve strong, terminating a noble 
life in a fitting manner. Nor are we without Scripture warrant 
for these thoughts : ' Let your loins be girded about. * * * 
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when Pie cometh, 
shall find watching.' * * * Not those who die in a stupor 
are blessed, but they who go with all their powers about them, 
and wide awake, as to a wedding. lie died watching. lie died 
•with armor on. In the midst of hours of labor, in the very heart 
of patriotic consultations, just returned from camps and council, 
he was stricken down. 



HENRY WARD BEI.CIIER's S ETYMON'. 285 

"No fever dried his blooc'' no plow waste oonsnmod him. 
AH at once, in full strength and uianliood. with his ginlk' ti.aht 
about iiim, he departed, and walks with (jod. Nor was tin; 
manner of his death more slioclviug, if we will surround it with 
higher associations. Have not thuusandvS of soldiers fallen on 
the field of battle by the bullets of an enemy, and did not he ? 
All soldiers that fall ask to depart in the hour of victory, and 
at such an hour he fell. There was not a poor drummer boy in 
all this war, that has fallen, for whom the great heart of Ivincoln 
would not have bled ; there is not one private soldier without 
note or name slain among thousands, and hid in the pit ainonf^ 
liundreds, without even the memorial of a separate burial, for 
whom the President would not have wept. He was a man from 
and of the people, and now that he who might not i)ear the 
nnnch, the toil and battle, with these humble citizens, has been 
c:dlcd to die by the bullet, as they were, do you not feel that 
there is a peculiar fitness to his nature and life, that he should 
in death be joined with them in a final common experience? 
For myself, when any event is susceptible of a nobler garnish- 
ing, I cannot understand the nature or character oi' those who 
seek rather to drag it down, degrading and debasing, rather 
than ennobling and sanctil'ying it. 

" Secondly : This blow was but the expiring rebellion ; and 
as a miniature gives all the form and features of its suljject, so, 
epitomized in this foul act, we find the whole nature and disposi- 
tion of slavery. It begins in a wanton destruction of all human 
rights, and in the desecration of all the sanctities of heart and 
hcmie. It can be maintained only at the sacrifice of every right 
moral feeling in its abettors and upholders. It is a two-edged 
sword, cutting both wnys, desolating alike the oppressed and" 
the oppressor, and viohuitly destroying manhood in the victim, 
it insidiously destroys manhood in the master. No man born 
and bred under the influence of the accursed thing can possibly 
maintain his manhood, and I would as soon look for a saint in 
the darkness of perdition, as for a man of honor in this hot-bed 
oF iniquity. The problem is solved, its demonstration is com- 
plete. Slavery wastes its victims, it wastes estates. It destroys 
))iihlic morality, it corrupts manhood in its centre. Communi- 
ties in which it exists are not to be trusted. Its products are 
rotten. No tindjer grown in its cursed soil is fit for the ribs of 
GUI- ship of State or for our household homes. 

"'I'he people are selfish in their patriotism, and brittle; who- 
evr leans on them for support is pierced in his hand. Their 
h<Mi<.t is not honor, but a bastard quality which disgraces the 
n;i!iie rf honor, and for all time the honor of the supporters of 
eitivery will be throughout the earth a by-word and a hissing. 
Their whole moral nature is death-smitten. The needless rebel- 
lion, the treachery of its leaders to oaths and trusts, their vio- 
lations of the couimouest i)rincii)!es of fidelity, sitting in 
18 



286 HENRY WARD BEECHER's SERMON. 

Senates, Councils and places of trust, only to betray them ; the 
long, general and unparalleled cruelty to prisoners, witlioiit pro- 
vocation or excuse; their unreasoning uralignity and fierceness, 
all mark the symptoms of the disease of slavery, that is a deadly 
poison to soul and body. There may be exceptions, of course, 
but as a rule, malignity is the nature and the essence. Slavery 
is itself barbarous, and the nation which upholds and protects 
it is likewise barbarous. It is fit that its ex])iring blow should 
be made to take away from men the last forbearance, the last 
pity, and fire the soul with invincible determination that the 
breeding ground of such mischiefs and monsters shall be utterly 
and forever destroyed. 

" It needed not that the .assaesin should put on paper his 
belief in slavery. lie was but the sting of the monster slavery 
which has struck this blow, and as long as this nation lasts, it 
will not be forgotten that we have had our ' Martyr President,' 
nor while Heaven holds high court or Hell rots beneath, will it 
be forgotten that slavery murdered him. 

" Third : This blow was aimed at the life of government and of 
the nation. Lincoln was slain, but America was meant. The 
man was cast down, but the Government was smitten at. The 
President was killed, but national life-breathing freedom and 
benignity was sought. He of Illinois, as a private man, might 
have been detested, but it was because he represented the cause 
of just government, liberty and kindness, he was slain. It was 
a crime against universal government, and was aimed at all. 
Not more was it at us than at England or France or any well 
compacted government. It was aimed at mankind. The whole 
world will repudiate it, and stigmatize it as a deed without 
a redeeming feature. It was not the deed of the oppressed, 
stung to madness by the cruelty of the oppressor; it was not 
the avenging hand against the heart of a despot; it was the 
exponent of a venomous hatred of liberty, and the avowed 
advocacy of slavery. 

[Mr. Beecher illustrated the point by a report of the interview 
between (Jovernor Pickens and Lieutenant 'I'albot, a few days 
prior to the attack on Fort Sumter, wherein Pickens admitted 
that the South had really no cause of complaint ; but that the 
leaders, hoping to deceive the people, had manufactured the 
necessary indignation at Northern insults, and were determined 
to separate, even though confessedly without good grounds.] 

"Fourth. But the blow has signally failed. The cause is not 
stricken, ])ut strengthened ; men hate slavery the more, and love 
liberty better. The nation is dissolved, but only in tears, and 
stands more square and solid to-day than any pyramid in Kgypt. 
The Government is not weakened, it is strengthed. How readily 
and easily the ranks closed up. We shall be more true to every 
instinct of liberty, to the Constitution, and to the principles 
of universal freedom. Where, in any other community — the 



HENRY WARD BEECHER'S SERMON. 2b'/ 

crowned head being stricken by the hand of an assassin — would 
the funds have stood firm, as did ours, not wavering the half of 
one per cent? 

"After four years of drastic war, of heavy drafts upon the 
people, on top of all, the very head of the nation is stricken 
down, and the funds never quivered, but stand as firm as the 
granite ribs in the mountains. Republican institutions have 
been vindicated in this very evidence. God has said, by the 
voice of his Providence, that republican liberty, based upon 
universal freedom, shall be as firm as the foundation of the 
globe. 

" Fifth. Even he, who now sleeps, has by this event been 
clothed with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now 
willingly hear what before they shout their ears to. Like the 
words of Washington, will his simple, mighty words be pondered 
on by your children, and children's children. Men will receive 
a new accession to their love of patriotism, and will, for his sake, 
guard with more zeal the welfare of the whole country. On the 
altar of this martyred patriot I swear you to be more faithful to 
your country. They will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new 
hatred to that slavery which has made him a martyr. By this 
solemn spectacle. I swear you to renewed hostility to slavery, 
and to a never-ending pursuit of it to its grave. They will ad- 
mire and imitate his firmness injustice, his inflexible conscience 
for the right, his gentleness and moderation of spirit, and I 
swear you to a faithful copy of his justice, his mercy, and his 
gentleness. 

" You I can comfort, but how can I speak to the twilight 
millions, who revere his name as the name of God. Oh, there 
will be wailing for him, in hamlet and cottage, in woods and in 
wilds, and the fields of the South. Her dusky children looked 
on him, as on a Moses come to lead them out from the land of 
bondage. To whom can we direct them but to the Shepherd of 
Israel, and to his care commit them, for help, for comfort, and 
protection. And now, the Martyr is moving in triumphal march 
mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at his coming. 
Cities and States are his pall-bearers, and cannon beat the hours 
with solemn procession. Dead—dead — dead — he yet speak- 
eth ! Is Washington dead ? Is Hampden dead ? Is David 
dead? Now, disenthralled of flesh, and risen to the unob- 
structed sphere where passion never comes, he begins his 
illimitable work. His life is grafted upon the Infinite, and will 
be fruitful now as no earthly life can be. 

" Pass on, thou that hast overcome ! Your sorrows, oh peo- 
ple, are his paean I Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums, 
sound in his ear a triumph. You wail and weep here — God 
makes it triumph there. Four years ago, oh Illinois, we took 
him from your midst, an untried man from among the people. 
Behold, we return him, a mighty Conqueror I Not thine, but 



288 GEN. HIRAM WALBEIDGE'S ADDRESS. 

the Nation's — not ours, but the world's. Give him place, ye 
Prairies! In the niiclst of this jri'eat cotitinciit, his ilusi phuU 
rost, a sacred treasure to myriads who sl^all pilgrim to that 
shriue to kindle anew their zeal and patrioism. Ye winds, that 
move over the mighty spaces of the West, chant his requiem 1 
Ye people, behold a martyr whose blood, as articulate words, 
pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty." 

At the conclusion of the discourse, during which many 
of the congregation were affected to tears, Mr. Boocher 
offered another Prayer — a Hyinn of Victory was sung — 
and the services closed with a Benediction. 

ADDRESS BY GENERAL HIRAM WALBRIDGE. 

At a large meeting of the congregation connected with 
Dr. Bowling's church, New York, General Wall)ridge 
was introduced, and delivered the following noble address 
on the death of the President : 

GENERAL WALBRIDGE'S SPEECH. 

"The history of a nation is nothing more or less than the 
biography of its distinguished sons. Whenever, therefore, a 
citizen of any community has attained such a position as to con- 
centrate within his own person the affections of his countrymen, 
whatever affects him, for the time being, affects the State. And 
whenever such an individual is transferred to that list whicli 
makes up the record of the distinguished dead, just in propor- 
tion to the extent of his influence while living will be the respect 
paid his memory by those who shall come after him. The just 
appreciation by posterity of those who have rendered eminent 
services either in the Cabinet or in the field, is one of the 
strongest incentives to virtue and moral worth — an obligation 
which it is the highest duty of society to protect and cherish. 
Tlius impressed, the American people since the assassination of 
their lamented President, with hearts overflowing with sadness, 
have gathered in their primary assemblages in every section of 
the Union, to pay appropriate tributes to the memory of the 
great and good man who, springing from tlie loins of the people, 
without adventitious aid, by the force of his eminent virtues, his 
patriotic services, his strict adherence to principle, and the 
fidelity with which he pursued his convictions on all questions 
affecting the interests of the State and influencing the destiny 
of the people, rose to the highest dignity recognized in the land. 
The peaceful death by the ordinary course of nature of a citizen 
occupying such an exallod position, and invested with such 



GEN HIRAM WALBRIDGE's ADDRESS. 289 

honors, would at anytime awaken the sensibilities of the people. 
It is not strange, then, that the national emotion is stirred from 
its innermost depths at the brutal and cowardly act of the 
murderous assassin, under circumstances so peculiar as those 
wliicli surrounded the recent death of the President of the 
United States. But mysterious are the ways of Providence. 
Called without solicitation on his part to discharge the high 
duties incident to the Presidential office at a period of unex- 
ampled bitterness in our political history, just as he comprehended 
the period had arrived when he might tender forgiveness to the 
great body of the people who had been induced to engage in the 
rebellion^ — reserving for subsequent consideration whatever 
action the Government would feel called upon to take in refer- 
ence to the leaders of this foul conspiracy — for purposes un- 
known to us the Great Intinite, at such a moment, suffered the 
hand of the assassin to take tlie life of the Chief Magistrate. 
But who is there that will say it has thereby taken the life of 
the nation? For all realize at this moment, even amid this un- 
broken lamentation, and before the mortal remains of our illus- 
trious President are confined to their final resting-place, that 
this last dispensation of Providence has only the more thor- 
oughly strengthened the fixed determination of the American 
people to preserve intact their liberties and perpetuate their 
government to those into whose keeping in the future is to be 
confided the control of Constitutional government. Upon two 
former occasions in our political history, the second officer in 
the Government has been called upon to discharge the duties of 
Chief Magistrate, llow widely different the circumstances that 
Lave attended the death of the late President, who by this 
wicked rebellion had been prevented from exercising his legiti- 
mate functions as President over a large number of States that 
were in revolt? Yet at the moment when the murderous blow 
was struck, he stood within sight of the promised land. He 
realized, doubtless, that i" Providence was to continue his ex- 
istence, the latter portion of his second Administration was to 
be marked by the recognition of his authority over all the States 
as they existed antecedent to the rebellion. It is true, that 
when he departed from Washington to visit the headquarters 
of his most illustrious commander, just j)revious to that wonder- 
ful series of events which terminated not only in the surrender 
of the rebel capital, but the capitulation of the vctern army of 
the so-called Confederacy, many anxious prayers were offered to 
heaven that, in his journey in the confines of a district so 
recently infected with treason, that his life might be spared, and 
that no murderous blow might be inflicted, which, robbing him 
of life, should deprive the people of tlioir legitimate representa- 
tive. When consequently he returned from his late mission, to 
be himself the bearer of the good tidings of the complete over- 
throw of the rebellion, and to give to the nation assurances that 



290 GEN". HIRAM WALBllIDGE'S ADDRESS. 

pi'ace was not so far distant, his return to the Capital was hailed 
throughout the Nation with notes of acchimation and praise. 
Had we not reason to believe that our great and good Presi- 
dent, protected by Providence, bore a charmed life, not simply 
for himself, but as the representative of twenty millions of people, 
engaged in the benificent mission of commending to the world 
the benefits of free republican institutions. Man proposes, but 
dod disposes. That was the instant which Providence had 
selected to terminate his earthly existence, May we not reason- 
ably conclude that the measure of his greatness was complete, and 
that no lengthened years — no subsequent exertion — no addi- 
tional labors, could add to the dignity and the greatness of a 
Hie so pregnant with usefulness and renown ? Such a legacy for 
the unborn millions that hereafter shall s|)eak his name and 
bear his praises, as the representative of the American people, 
who finally guaranteed Republican institutions to the VVestern 
Hemisphere? Washington severed the colonies from Great 
Britain — he aided to lay broad and deep the foundations of the 
Republic. But the civilization of that age was not adequate to 
found institutions of government which should meet all the re- 
quirements of that higher civilization which should come when 
human slavery was to Ije everywhere regarded an element hostile 
to the true interests of a great, free, and Christian people. 
Vv^here the labors of Washington terminated, the labors of 
Lincoln began. AVashington formed a Republic which assumed 
to recognize political equality. But while it declared that all 
men were free and equal, it recognized within its limits an insti- 
tution of human bondage. Washington was permitted to ex- 
pire, surrounded by mourning relatives, in the tranquil shades 
of Mount Vernon, conscious by his own reflection that the hour 
of his mortal existence had been attained. How unlike the 
death of our illustrious President. In the enjoyment of pci'fect 
health, seeking that relaxation essential for the strength of his 
faculties, after the arduous labors in which he had been engaged, 
without a moment's note of preparation, in the twinkling of 
an eye the bullet of the assassin pierced that majestic brain, 
whose workings had wrought out the permanent i)rosperily of 
this great peo})le; and whose judicious counsels had borne 
us triumphantly through the most gigantic rebellion recurilcd 
in history. 

"It is true a single arm directed the accursed bullet, but the 
murderous purpose which could conceive such an atrocity could 
only result from the stifled enmity of that barbaric institution, 
which for centuries had enslaved millions of the human race, 
and had inaugurated within the boundaries of the Republic of 
the United States an oligarchy of crime which fattened on the 
sweat and toil and blood of the victims over which it exercised 
Bueh material power. JV.it no single death can exjjiate this 
great crime. Our beloved President was the representative of 



GEN. HIRAM WALBKIDGE's ADDRESS. 291 

freedom and of free Government. lie will live in history as the 
exponent of American Republican Constitutional (Tovernment. 
His murderous assassin was the Representative of that accursed 
Rebellion, and his name will live in immortal execration, as the 
exponent of the conspiracy which had for its object the over- 
throw of the Government of the United States, in order that 
another government might be formed in this Christian age rest- 
ing on the basis of human Slavery. Lincoln shall live with 
Washington in immortal renown, while Booth and Davis shal. 
forever stand in the same record of infamy to provoke the in- 
dignation of the virtuous and good. Each were the representa- 
tives of their respective civilizations. Washington and Lincoln 
illustrated the genius of free institutions — of a Government 
which recognized individual political equality — which had for its 
object the recognition of the rights of man — which made labor 
dignified — which secured for all men equal privileges, and which 
founded a government which permitted the humblest individual, 
by the exercise of virtue, sobriety, industry, and integrity to at- 
tain the highest dignities of the Republic. Davis and Booth 
represent that false civilization which has for its object the in- 
stitution of a Government which divided society into classes — 
which made the interests of the many subordinate to the interest 
of the few, and which, while claiming to be a Government of 
freedom, was the most grinding, odious, military despotism on 
earth — a Government whose power was employed to enslave a 
dependent race — which degraded labor in order that a favored 
few, discarding the Divine injunction that by the sweat of his 
brow man should earn his bread— placed itself in conflict with 
our Divine religion, and in conflict with all the elements on 
which the prosperity, peace and welfare of the State can safely 
rest; a semi barbarous civilization, incompatible with the fun- 
damental principles on which the republic is based ; a civiliza- 
tion which cauy(.'d Davis to attempt the overthrow of his country, 
with the Utopian idea that he could rear another government 
which, claiming to be free, was to retain within its limits that 
refractory element which had cursed the Republic of the United 
States from the day of its origin to the day when the illustrious 
deceased by his verdict d->clai-ed that within the limits of the 
United States, slavery should no more exist forever; a civiliza- 
tion which stimulated this wicked and murderous assassin to 
fondly imagine that by ihc death of the great and good Presi- 
dent of the United Stales he might thereby aid the falling 
fortunes of the so-called Confederacy — if, indeed, he was not 
stimulated by the ignol)le purjiose of living forever in history by 
connection with Mr. Lincoln's death, as Judas lives in inf'iuny 
in conjunciiou with the Friiice of Deace, wlmm he betrayed. 
It is impossible to conceive what test our institutions should bo 
subjected to in order to prove their ability to meet any emer- 
gency that may an^e. Twice involved in I'ureign war, the 



292 GEN, HIRAM WALBRIDGES ADDRESS. 

Government of the United States have inilicated the strength 
and power of institutions based upon the intelligence, virtue, 
integrity, and power of the people. The question, however, still 
remained — was such a Government as adequate to supjjress 
domestic treason as to resist foreign aggression? The (jovern- 
ment of the United States, led hy its noble, kind-hearted Presi- 
dent, proved itself adequate to this emergency, and hencefor- 
ward Republican institutions will be regarded as capable of 
suppressing domestic treason as any form of government recog- 
nized among men. And yet it seems to be the will of heaven 
that when this was accomplished, and the grave responsibilities 
that cluster around the punishment of the bold, wicked, unscru- 
pulous conspirators who have inaugurated this gigantic treason 
had arrived, another was to be selected to determine the measure 
of justice which should be meted out to them. One whose whole 
life has been familiar with the machinations by which the con- 
spirators organized a public sentiment, having for its object the 
overthrow of the Government of the United States. Let us 
rejoice that that selection has fallen upon one who brings to the 
discharge of his high office a long and arduous career of un- 
broken lidelity to the interests of the masses, to the amelioration 
of whose condition he has devoted the best energies of his 
existence. Thoroughly familiar with the demoralizing effects of 
that institution whose continued existence was a wrong to the 
industrial classes of the whole nation, to him may be well 
awarded the high prerogative of inaugurating those great re- 
forms essential to the continued prosperity of the people as they 
emerge from the desolating influence of the terrible interneci»ie 
war through which we have so recently passed. IJut we must 
not forget tliat even this strong arm is powerful only as it is 
invigorated with the strength and coniidence of the people. 
Thus sustained, who shall mensure the greatness and renown 
which awaits the administraliun of the (iovernnienl upon which 
we are about to enter. (Jailed to exerciser power under circum- 
stances so grave and une.xpi'cted, enough has already transpired 
to assure the public confidence that the interests of the people 
and the honor of the rejiublic will be safe in the hands of ihe 
present Executive. Indicating his future policy, as he points to 
his past illustrious and ))(>rsisTeut record, foreign Governments 
may learn that hereafter the policy of this nation is to be that 
early inaugurated by Washington, which sought to advance its 
own great interests without any entangling alliances abroad : 
and equally assuring them there must be incorporated upon this 
continent no institutions unfriendly to the continued advance- 
ment of the Government of the United States ; while the masses 
abroad can equally a])iireciiite that the President of the United 
States will be glad to welcome here all those who desire to 
change their material condition and julvance their material 
prosperity by availing themselves of the benefits of that bcncfi- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN — BY IL W. BKECIIER. 293 

cent legislation, which socnres to each iiiuii a home— a measine 
which owes its success to the sagacity aixl t'oresight of President 
Johnson more than to that of any other living man. He early 
comprcheudeil that through the agency of the 'Homestead 
Bill,' if it could once be established', he might make an inroad 
upon the oligarchy of the South, who recognized slavery, and 
by its agency fomented the treason which ultimately struck for 
the overthrow of the Government. The people of the United 
States themselves are to be assured that justice, though tem- 
pered with mercy, will, nevertheless, be executed upon all who 
have sought to take the life of the nation, and that treason must 
be regarded the most odious crime recognized in our social and 
political system." 

As a fitting close to this volume, we append the follow- 
ing powerful article, on Abraham Lincoln, written by 
Ilcnry Ward Beecher, for the New York Ledger, and 
published in that paper of May 20th, 1865. We think it 
is the best utterance on the great topic of the day which 
has yet seen the light of publicity. In addition to its 
power and eloquence, and splendid philosophical analysis, 
it contains some startling facts which will be new to most 
people. 

ABRAHAM LIITCOLN.— BY HEK"IIY WARD 
BEECHER. 

The last act of the subli-ne drama has at length been 
finished, and the most wonderful spectacle of the age, or 
perhaps of time, has been completed ! 

Mr. Lincoln's assassination is not a single act, but the 
last of a series, of which it forms the consummate whole. 
It is seldom that history of itself falls into such natural 
and dramatic periods as may be marked in the wonderful 
tragedy of five years 1 It will be seen, too, that the ex- 
citement of feeling, at each step seeming to have reached 
its bounds, still rose, until in the last grand catastrophe 
it surpasses all that man conceived possible or endurable. 
And among the many other things demonstrated by this 
civil revolution, is the capacity of comnmnities to endure 



29i: ABRAHAM LINCOLN— BY IL W. BEECHER. 

profound excitements prolonj^erl tlirough wide periods of 
time. The excitement of tlie Kansas strugj^le was only a 
preface to the higher glow of the Presidential canvass of 
18G0. But that was itself inferior to the profound anxict) 
and feeling of the period between November, 1860, and 
March, 1861, during which Secessionism developed into 
civil war. When, in April, 1861, Fort Sumter was 
assaulted, all feeling before seemed tame, compared with 
that fire of patriotism which swept the land. That feel- 
ing consolidated into a determination which the various 
defeats and victories of four years had no power to 
change. The flame-like character of popular feeling was 
changed, but only as wood that blazes, at length growa 
even hotter yet when it becomes coals. 

In this last year of the war, as victory upon victory, 
East, West and South, foretokened the glorious consum- 
mation, the nation grew more joyful, until, on the fall of 
Richmond and the surrender of Lee, it seemed as if the 
people had expended no vital force in former emotions, 
but burst with all the freshness of unwasted hearts into 
the luxuriance of tropical joy. Was it possible that 
human nature couJd bear another and greater strain ? 
No one would believe it who had not seen the grief, 
horror and indignation of the weeks following Mr. Lin- 
coln's death. The sorrow was like the rolling in of an 
ocean tide. It quenched the exultation of victory, and 
the joy of anticipated peace, as completely as a brand is 
quenched when thrown into the sea. Men forgot that 
they had been glad. The banners and decorations of 
victory were left to mingle with exhibitions of mourning, 
and one could not tell whether the vast pageantry said, 
"Victory is swallowed up in Death," or " Deal/i is sival- 
lowed up in Victory.''^ 

No voluntary sign of sorrow was half so striking as 
the unconscious silence of that ever-roaring citv of New 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN — BY H. W. EEECUER. 295 

York 1 A half million people thronged the city on Monday 
and Tuesday, and filled the streets to suffocation. Yet 
the presence of the Mighty Dead kept all so still and 
gentle, that a bird flying over would be unscared by noise, 
as if it were midnight, or a Sabbath day. 

A martyred President was the city's king. His pulse- 
less hand stretched out a sceptre, which awed all men to 
silence ! — Before that Hearse enmities died, jealousies and 
rivalries coiled and hid, pleasure forgot its rules, avarice 
its toils, and for more than a week, the imperial city that 
disdained always before to be subdued to any common 
sentiment, now silently and humbly watched and waited, 
in all its streets, to offer homage and affection to him, 
when dead, for whom alive it would never give a vote ! 

As a private citizen, Mr. Lincoln would have lived 
respected, and died lamented as a kind, faithful and honest 
man, and slept with hundreds of others, in a few years 
undistinguishable. He had no such gifts of power as 
would have raised him, in spite of circumstances, to emi- 
nence. His was not a brain that dominated. His will 
was firm, but not executive nor despotic. His mind was 
broad and strong, but slow and laborious in its methods. 
Truths did not break upon him with flash and instant 
revelation. He saw them far off, obscurely, as nebula, 
and like an astronomer, he resolved them only by patient 
observation. Thus, he suspected things to be true long 
before he was sure, and he was sure long before he had 
made out the whole matter with distinct accuracy. He 
travailed with truth in long gestation, but when once it 
was his he loved it with intense parental instinct. His 
wisdom was moral wisdom. His power and success 
sprung from moral qualities. It was not intellect but 
manhood that ennobled him. 

Mr. Lincoln is, perhaps, the most eminent instance 
since the days of Washington of a man made great by 



296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN — BY H. W. BEECIIER. 

the inherent wisdom of true goodness. And such a 
nature can scarcely be delineated apart and separate from 
the events of that history wiiich called out his virtues. 
This is particularly true of Mr. Lincoln for two reasons : 
First, because his excellence did not assume the form of i 
few bold qualities, but was the sum of many simpler 
qualities maintained under great trial and provocation. 
And secondly, because we are now but just beginning to 
see the moral character of those bad men against whom 
he acted. 

That so soon in our history the dark crimes which 
stained the later periods of Roman and mediaeval Euro- 
pean history should have taken possession of the leading 
Southern conspirators, could scarcely be imagined by 
those who have been accustomed to study the effects of 
slavery upon the masters, in the light of servile apologists, 
rather than under the guidance of great principles of 
human nature. 

It is now known that a separation of the South from 
the North was resolved upon as a matter simply of politi- 
cal ambition, without any reference to supposed griev- 
ances ; that the allegations of injury, of fears for tho 
future, of political injustice, were deliberately framed by 
Southern leaders as a means of exciting and uniting tho 
common people of tlie South, while their authors, among 
themselves, never pretended to believe in the truth of 
their own representations. 

There is, also, the gravest reason to believe that all 
moral restrictions were yielded, and that crimes the most 
infamous were deliberately employed as the means of pro- 
moting the bad ends of those conspirators. Those who 
know most of the interior of affairs, scarcely doubt that 
Harrison was poisoned, that Tyler might fulfil Southern 
plans of war with Mexico. With even stronger convic- 
tion is it affirmed that Tnylor was poisoned that a less 



ABRAIfAM LINCOLN — BY H. W. EEECHER. 297 

stern successormiglitgiveasuppler instrumentto Southern 
managers. AVho doubts, now, tliat it was attempted to 
poison Buchanan at the National Hotel, and leave Breck- 
inridge in his room ? It is a matter of verified history 
that efforts were made to take off Mr. Lincoln before he 
should be inaugurated. And now, tlie whole world is 
astounded by the hideous crime by which he has been 
removed from life. 

This perspective is needed to reveal the characters of 
the chief men in this superlative infamy of secession. We 
do not believe that the Southern people were privy to such 
crimes, or that all who became conspicuous in the South- 
era councils and armies knew of such things, but that the 
real leaders were men steeped in crime, and capable of the 
utmost infamy, we have not a doubt. 

To misguided millions, unconsciously inspired and led 
by men of such a spirit, Mr. Lincoln addressed the policy 
of kindness and conciliation for uearly two years. It was 
as if a Christian martyr had appealed to the reason and 
kindness of lions and tigers in a Roman amphitheatre ! 

But, though now known to have been misplaced, we 
must study Ml". Lincoln's forliearance and gentleness, from 
his own point of view. Never was man less disturbed by 
passion, by party heats, by anger or rashness. In the 
wild excitements which raged on every side, amidst 
treacheries, defeats, and gloom, amid lukewarm patriots, 
imbecile generals and divided counsellors, he maintained 
on the whole, a straightforward and elevated course. 

After Mr. Lincoln with long and painful hesitation 
determined to issue h\s p7'oclamati(>n of Liberty, a change 
took place, not only in the general policy of Government, 
but in the success of his administration. 

He relinquished the impractical hope of conciliating the 
South ; he boldly assumed the reserved powers of Govern- 
ment. He called to his aid men of nerve in the field, and, 



298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN — BY H. W. BEECHER. 

freed from the toils of a doubtful expediency, and of nice 
practical management, he fell back upon broad moral 
grounds. There his true nature had full scope ; and 
every hour after he conformed his policy to moral reason 
rather than to precedent, and political device, and hack- 
neyed expedients, Mr. Lincoln grew strong and success- 
ful. Then began those victories which in spite of reverses 
eat into the Southern power, and consumed its strength. 
Then Mr. Lincoln took his place in the estimation of emi- 
nent men in all the world, as a true and great statesman. 
Then, for the first time in two-score years, America had a 
President that embodied and really represented the prin- 
ciples of her history and her institutions 1 

Mr. Lincoln's re-election, in the midst of a civil war, by 
a people burdened with taxation, smarting with bereave- 
ments, assailed by factious partisans infected by the 
poison of Southern sympathy, is one of the remarkable 
events of history 1 Even more than the sublime homage 
of universal grief which waits upon his death, it is a 
monument of honor to his name. The unerring judgment 
of an intelligent common people passing by the dangerous 
glitter of military renown, with singular discretion put the 
State again into the hands of a citizen proved to bo 
honest, discreet, patient, wise and thoroughly good. 

The tragedy of Mr. Lincoln's death gives to his name a 
heroic renown which his plain and unassuming manners 
might have missed. lie has taken his place among the 
few great men of history. Not a stain of cruelty rests 
upon it. It is all luminous with unquestioned gentle- 
ness and lenity. Not one act of his administration can be 
censured as inspirated by Vanity, Self-interest or Pride. 
Amidst the disturbances of civil war and the confusion of 
a vast revolution, he is seen standing always temperate, 
calm, and wise. All his messages, letters and addresses 
may now be searched for a line or a word whose spirit can 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE MARTYR PRESIDENT. 299 

ho rebuked, now, in the elevation and solemnity of these 
hours which follow his death ! 

We write another name in the Calendar of Great Men. 
"We place new trust in institutions and principles which 
breed such men among the common people ! 

His form has fallen but his name abides forever. The 
bad men who have filled our times with infinite mischiefs 
are passing away to eternal infamy. The patriot and 
Christian Statesman, in bright apposition, shall rise to 
shine forever, like the stars in the firmament. 



11^ 3VEE:3VEOr5.I-A-3VI. 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE MARTYR PRESIDENT. 

IMPOSING CEREMONIES AT THE MTMAL CAPITAL, FEBRUARY 12th, 18C6. 

0I5/A.TI01T BY THE HOIsT. Q-EOIta-E B-A.lTCie,0:H"I'. 

DELIVERED IN THE HALL OP THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF 
THE UNITED STATES, BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF BOTH HOUSES OP 
CONGRESS, PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON, THE CABINET, CHIEF 

JUSTICE CHASE, GENERAL GRANT, AND THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS 

ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY HIS CHARACTER 

AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN AND AS A STATESMAN — AND THE PART 

HE BORE IN TFIE GREAT WAR FOR THR UNION ORIGIN AND 

CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN REBELLION — REVIEW OP THE 
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE ASSASSINATION, ETC. 

Both Houses of Congress having set apart the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1866, to assemble together and listen to a eulogy upon 
the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr Presi- 
dent, Hon. George Bancroft, the American historian, was 
selected to deliver the same. 

At 10 o'clock on the morning of that day, the doors leading 
to the rotunda of the Capitol were opened to those to whom in- 
vitations had been extended by the presiding officers of the two 
Houses of Congress, and to those holding tickets of admission 
to the galleries, issued by the Chairman of the Joint Commit- 
tee of Arrangements. The hall of the House of Representa- 
tives was opened for the admission of Representatives and 



300 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

those to whom invitations had been extended, who were con- 
ducted to the seats assigned to them. 

THE ORDEK OF SEATING. 

The President of the United States was seated in front of the 
Speaker's table. The Chief Justice and Associate Justices of 
the United States occupied seats next to the President, on the 
right of the Speaker's table. The heads of Departments, with 
the Diplomatic Corps, occupied seats next to the President, on 
the left of the Speaker's table. Lieutenant-General Grant, and 
other officers of the army and navy, who by name have re- 
ceived the thanks of Congress, occupied seats next to the 
Supreme Court, on the right of the Speaker's table. Repre- 
sentatives occupied scats on either side of the hall, in the rear 
of those invited. Four rows of seats, on either side of the 
main aisles, for Senators, in addition to those above mentioned, 
were occupied by assistant heads of Departments, Governors 
of States and Territories, the Mayors of Washington and 
Georgetown, the Chief Justices and Judges of the Court of 
Claims, and the Chief Justices and Associate Justices of the 
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, the heads of 
Bureaus in the Departments, and others. 

Tlie Marine band, in scarlet uniform, was stationed in the 
vestibule of the reporters' gallery. The diplomatic gallery was 
occupied by attaclies of the several legations, with elegantly 
dressed ladies. Long before noon the male galleries were full, 
and stout men, with hats firmly fixed on their heads, struggled 
with ladies in the vestibules and doorways for a peep at the in- 
terior of the hall. 

The House was called to order at 12 o'clock by the Speaker, 
when the Rev. Dr. Boynton, Chaplain of tlie Hoiise of Repre- 
sentatives, offered the following prayer : 

THE REV. DR. BOYNTON'S PRAYER. 

Almighty God, who dost inhabit eternity, while we appear 
but for a little moment and then vanish away, we adore Thy 
eternal name. Infinite in power and majesty and greatly to be 
feared art Thou. All earthly distinctions disappear in Thy 
presence, and we come befoi-c Thy throne simply as men — fallen 
men, condemned alike by Thy law, and justly cut off", through 
sin, from communion with 'rhee. But through Thy infinite 
mercy, a new way of access has been opened through Thy Son, 
and consecrated by His blood. We come in that all worthy 
name and plead the promise of pardon and acceptance through 
Him. By the imposing solemnities of this scene, we are car- 
ried back to the hour when the nation heard and shuddered at 
hearing that Abraham Lincoln was dead — was murdered. AVe 
would bow ourselves submissively to Him by whom that awful 
hour was appointed. AVe bow to the stroke that fell on tlio 



REV. DR. BOYNTON's PRAYER. 301 

country in the very hour of its triumph, and hushed all its 
shouts of victory to one voiceless sorrow. The Lord gave 
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed is the name of the 
Lord. The shadow of that death has not yet passed from the 
heart of the nation, as this National testimonial bears witness 
to-day. The gloom thrown from these surrounding emblems 
of death is fringed, we know, with the gloi'y of a great triumph, 
and the light of a great and good man's memory. Still, O 
Lord, may this hour bring to us the proper warning. Be ye 
also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of 
Man cometh. Any one of us may be called as suddenly as he 
whom we mourn. We worship Thee as the God of our Fathers. 
Thou didst trace for them a path over the trackless sea, and 
bring them to these shores, bearing with them the seed of a 
vast dominion. We thank Thee that the life-power of the 
young nation they planted received from Thee such energy, 
guidance, and protection; that it spread rapidly over the 
breadth of the Continent, carrying with it Christian liberty, 
churches, schools, and all the blessings of a Christian civi- 
lization. We thank 'I'hee that the progress of the true Ameri- 
can life has been irresistible, because sustained by Thy eternal 
counsels and Thy almighty power, and because the might of 
(iod was in this national life we have seen it sweeping all oppo- 
sition away, grinding great systems and parties to powder, 
and breaking in pieces the devices of men. and Thou hast 
raised up for it heroic defenders in every hour of peril. We 
thank Thee, strong Defender. And when treason was hatch- 
ing its plots, and massing its armies, then, O God of Israel, who 
didst bring David from the sheepfold. Thou gavest one reared 
in the humble cabin to become the hope and stay of this great 
people in their most perilous hour, to shield them in disaster, 
and lead them to final victory. We thank Thee that 'J'hou 
gavest us an honest man, simple hearted, and loving as a child, 
but with a rugged strength that needed only culture and disci- 
pline. Thanks be to God that this discipline was granted him 
through stern public trial, domestic sorrow, and 'J'hy solemn 
providence, till the mere politician was overshadowed by the 
nobler growth of his moral and spiritual nature, till he came, as 
we believe, into sympathy with Christ, and saw that we could 
succeed only by doing justice. Then, inspired by Thee, he uttered 
those words of power which changed three millions of slaves into 
men— the great act which has rendered his name forever illus- 
trious, and secured the triumph of our cause. We think of him 
almost as the propliet of his era. Thou didst make that honest, 
great-hearted man the central figure of his age, setting upon his 
goodness, upon his moral grandeur, the seal of Thine ap])roval 
and the crown of victory. We bless Thee that he did not die 
until assured of victory, until he knew that his great wnrk wa3 
done, and he had received all the honor that earth could bestow, 
19 



302 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and thon we believe Thou didst givehira a martyr's crown. "Wo 
thank Thee that we have tliis hope for the illustrious dead. 
Great reason have we also to thank Thee tliat such was the en- 
during strength of our institutions, that tliey received no per- 
ceptible shock from the deatli even of such a man and in such 
an hour, and that Thou didst provide for that perilous moment 
one whose strength was sufficient to receive and bear the weight 
of government, and who, we trust, will work out the great 
problem of Christian freedom to its full solution, and build this 
great people into one inseparable whole. We thank Thee that 
the Representatives of the nation have come to sit to-day in 
the shadow of Abraham Lincoln's tomb, to express once more 
their now chastened sorrow. May they all re-consecrate them- 
selves to those principles which made him worthy to be remem- 
bered thus ; and then a redeemed and transfigured land will be 
a fitting monument to him and for them. P^ndow the Presi- 
dent with wisdom equal to his great responsibilities, that the 
blessings of a whole nation may also be given to him. May 
his advisers, our judges, and our legislators be constantly in- 
structed by Thee. May 'J'hy blessing rest on the officers of the 
army and navy, by whose skill and courage our triiunph was 
won ; \ipon our soldiers and sailors, upon our people, and on 
those who are struggling on toward a perfect manhood. Bless 
these eminent men, the honored representatives of foreign 
powers. Remember the sovereigns and people whom they 
represent. We thank Thee that peace reigns with them as 
with us. May it continue until the nations shall learn war 
no more. Remember Abraham Lincoln's widow and family. 
Comfort them in their sore bereavement. May they be con- 
soled to know how much the father and husband is loved and 
honored still. Give Divine support to the distinguished orator 
of the day. May he so speak as to impress the whole nation's 
mind. Prepare us to live as men in this age sliould, that we 
may be received into Thy heavenly kingdom ; and to Thy name 
shall be the praise and the glory for evermore. Amen. 

ADDRESS OF SENATOR FOSTER. 

^ The Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, President of the Senate pro 
tern., called the two Houses to order and then said: 

No ordinary occasion could have convened this august assem- 
bly. For foiir years the stoi'm of civil war raged fiercely over 
our coimtry. The blood of the best and bravest of her sons had 
been freely shed to preserve lier name and place among the 
nations of the earth. In April last the dark clouds, which had 
BO long hung heavily and gloomily over our heads, were all dis- 
persed, and the light of peace, more welcome than even the vcr 
nal sunshine, gladdened the eyes and the hearts of our people. 



ORATION BY IIOS. GEORGE BANCROFT. 803 

Shouts of joy and songs of triumph echoed through our land. 
The hearts of the devout poured themselves in orisons and 
thanksgivings to the God of battles and of nations, that the 
most wicked and the most formidable rebellion ever known in 
human history, had been effectually crushed, and our country 
was saved. In the midst of the abounding joy. suddenly and 
swiftly as the lightning's flash, came the fearful tidings that tlie 
Chief Magistrate of the Republic, our President, loved and 
honored as few men ever were, so honest, so faithful, so true to 
his duty and his country, had been foully murdered ; had fallen 
by the bullet of an assassin. All hearts were stricken with 
horror. 'J'he transition from extreme joy to profound sorrow 
was never more sudden and universal. Had it been possible 
for a stranger, ignorant of the truth, to have looked over the 
land, he would have supposed that there had come upon us 
some visitation of the Almighty, no less dreadful than that 
which fell on ancient Egypt, on that fearful night when there 
was not a house where there was not one dead. The nation 
wept for him. After being gazed upon by myriads of loving 
eyes, under the dome of this magnificent Capitol, the remains 
of our President were borne in solemn procession through our 
cities, towns, and villages— all draped in the habilunents of sor- 
row, the symbols and tokens of profound and heartfelt grief — 
to their final resting-place in the capital of his own State. There 
he sleeps peacefully, embalmed in the tears of his countrymen. 
The Senate and House of Representatives have thought proper 
to commemorate this tragic event by appropriate services. This 
day, the birthday of him whom we mourn, has properly been 
selected. An eminent citizen, distinguished by his labors and 
services in high and responsible public positions, at home and 
abroad, whose pen has instructed the present age in the history 
of his country, and done much to transmit the fame and renown 
of that country to future ages — the Hon. George Bancroft — will 
now deliver a discourse. Applause. 

Mr. Bancroft, who was sitting between Senator Foot, on one 
side, and Representative Washburne, of Illinois, on the other, 
then arose and delivered the following address : 

MR. BANCROFT'S ORATION. 

GOD IN HISTORY. 

Senators, Representatives of America : 

That God rules in the affairs of men, is as certain as any 
truth of physical science. On the great moving power, which 
is from the beginning, hangs the world of the senses and the 
world of thought and action. Eternal wisdom marshals the 
great procession of the nations, working in patient continuity 
through the ages, never halting and never abrupt, cncorapas- 



804 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAnAM LINCOLN. 

sing all events in its oversif^ht, and ever effecting its will, though 
mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings 
are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics 
flourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that is told; 
but nothing is by chance, though men, in their ignorance of 
causes, may think so. The deeds of time are governed, as well 
as jiidged, by the decrees of eternity. The caprice of fleeting 
existences bends to the immovable omnipotence which plants 
its foot on all the centuries, and has neither change of purpose 
nor repose. Sometimes, like a messenger through the thick 
darkness of night, it steps along mysterious ways ; but when the 
hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass into a new 
form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of 
futurity ; an all-subduing influence prepares the mind of men 
for the coming revolution ; those who plan resistance find them- 
selves in conflict with the will of Providence, rather than with 
human devices ; and all hearts and all understandings, most of 
all the opinions and influences of the unwilling, are wonderfully 
attracted and compelled to bear forward the change which be- 
comes more an obedience to the law of universal nature than 
submission to the arbitrament of man. 

GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 

In the fulness of time, a republic rose up in tlie wilderness 
of America. Thousands of years had passed away before this 
child of the ages could be born. From whatever there was of 
good in the system of former centuries, she drew her nourish- 
ment ; the wrecks of the past were her warnings. With the 
deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her inmost nature, she dis- 
enthralled religion from bondage to temporal power, that her 
worship might be worship only in spirit and in truth. 'J'he 
wisdom which had passed from India through Glreece, with 
what Greece had added of her own ; the jurisprudence of Rome ; 
the medieval municipalities ; the Teutonic method of represen- 
tation; the political experience of England; the benignant 
wisdom of the expositors of the law of nature and of nations in 
France and Holland, all shed on her their selectest influence. 
She washed the gold of political wisdom from the sands 
wherever it was found ; she cleft it from the rocks ; she gleaned it 
among ruins. Out of all the discoveries of statesmen and sages, 
out of all the experience of past human life, she compiled a 
perennial political philosophy, the primordial principles of na- 
tional ethics. 'I'he wise men of Europe sought the best govern- 
ment in a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy ; 
and America went behind these names to extract from them 
the vital elements of social forms, and blend ihem harmoniously 
in the free connnonwealth, which comes nearest to the illustra- 
tion of the natural ci|ua!ity of all men. She intrusted tho 
guardianship of established rights to law; the movements of 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 



305 



reform to the spirit of the people, and drew her force from the 
happy reconciliation of both. 

TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Republics had hitherto been limited to JJ^f 1 f ^;^\«"^ ^^ 
and their dependencies; America, domg that ff ?vhich the hU^e 
h' ot before been knmvn upon the earth, or believed by longs 
iud statesmen to be possible, extended her -1-^ic ao-o^s a 
continent. Under her auspices the vine of jiberty took deep 
?oot tnd filled the land ; the hills were covered ^^^ its shadow 
it^ hou'dis were like the goodly cedars, and reached into both 
oceans ° The fame of thil only daughter of freedom went out 
X all the lands of the earth ; from her the human race drew 
hope. 

PROPHECIES ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF SLAVERY. 

Neither hereditary monarchy, nor hereditary autocracy, 
planted itself on our soil; the only hereditary condtion that 
fastened itself upon us was servitude. Nature works m s n- 
c Hty and is ever true to its law. The bee hives honey he 
viper distils poison; the vine stores its juices, and so do the 
130PPV and the upas. In like manner, every thought and cvei y 
Sn ripens its seed, each in its kind. In the mdividual man, 
^nd "tin more in a nkion, a just idea gives life, and progress 
and glory; a false conception portends dis^^t^Br, shanie and 
death. A hundred and twenty years ago, a West Jersey Quaker 
wrote " This trade of importing slaves is dark gloominess hang- 
in- over the land ; the consequences will be grievous to pos- 
terity " At the North the growth of Slavery was arrested by 
natu?al causes; in the regfon nearest ^lie/vopics it throve 
ranklv, and worked itself into the organism of the rising States. 
Vir-inia stood between the two, with soil, climate and resources 
demanding free labor, and yet capable of the profitable employ- 
ment of the slave. She was the land of great statesmen, and 
thev saw the danger of her being whelmed under the rismg 
flood, in time to struggle against the delusions of avarice and 
pride. Ninety-four years ago, the Legislature of Virgmia ad- 
dressed the British King, saying, that the trade in slaves was 
" of great inhumanity," was opposed to the "security and hap- 
piness " of their constituents, " would in time have the most de- 
structive influence," and "endanger their very existence. 
And the Kino- answered them, that "upon pam of his highest 
displeasure, the importation of slaves should not be m any re- 
spect obstructed. " " Pharisaical Britain, " wrote Franklm, m 
behalf of Virginia, "to pride thyself in setting fee a single 
slave that happened to land on thy coast, while thy laws con- 
tinue a traffic, whereby so many hundreds of thousands are 
dragged into a slavery that is entailed on their posterity. 



806 IN MEMORIAM— ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

" A serious view of this subject, " said Patrick ITcnry, in 1773, 
" gives a fj-loomy prospect to future times. " In the same year, 
George Mason wrote to the Legislature of Virginia: "The 
laws of impartial Providence may avenge our injustice upon our 
posterity. " In Virginia, and in the Continental Congress, 
Jefferson, with the approval of P^lmund Pendleton, branded the 
slave trade as piracy ; and he fixed in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence as the corner-stone of America : " All men arc 
created equal, with an unalienable right to liberty. " On the 
first organization of temporary Governments for the continen- 
tal domain, Jefferson, but for the default of New Jersey, would, in 
1784, have consecrated every part of that territory to freedom. 
In the formation of the National Constitution, Virginia, opposed 
by a part of New England, vainly struggled to abolish the slave- 
trade at once and forever; and when the ordinance of 1787 was 
introduced by Nathan Dane, without the clause prohibiting 
slavery, it was, through the favoral)le disposition of Virginia 
and the South, that the clause of Jefferson was restored, and the 
whole Northwestern Territory — all the territory that then be- 
longed to the nation — was reserved for the labor of freemen. 

DESPAIR OP THE MEN OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition of the 
slave-trade would bring with it the gradual abolition of slavery. 
But the expectation was doomed to disappointment. In sup- 
porting incipient measures for emancipation, Jefferson encoun- 
tered difficulties greater than he could overcome ; and after 
vain wrestlings, the words that broke from him — " I tremble 
for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice 
cannot sleep forever" — were words of despair. It was the de- 
sire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove slavery 
by a public act ; and as the prospects of a general emancipa- 
tion grew more and more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the 
action of the State, did all that he could, by bequeathing free- 
dom to his own slaves. Good and true men had, from the days 
of 1776, thought of colonizing the negro in the home of his 
ancestors. But the idea of colonization was thought to in- 
crease the difficulty of emancipation ; and in spite of strong 
support, while it accomplished much good for Africa, it proved 
impracticable as a remedy at home. Madison, who in early life 
disliked slavery so much that he wished "to depend as little as 
possible on the labor of slaves ;" Madison, who held that where 
slavery exists, " the republican theory becomes fallacious ;" 
Madison, who, in the last years of his life, would not consent 
to the annexation of Texas, lest his countrymen should fill it 
with slaves ; Madison, who said, " Slavery is the greatest evil 
imder which the nation labors — a portentous evil — an evil, 
moral, political, and economical — a sad blot on our free coun- 
try," went mournfully into old age, with the cheerless words : 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 307 

" No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking out the 
stain." 

NEW VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

The men of the Revolution passed away. A new generation 
sprang up, impatient that an institution to which they clung 
siiould be condemned as inhuman, unwise, and unjust. In the 
throes of discontent at the self-reproach of their fathers, and 
blinded by the lustre of wealth to be acquired by the culture 
of a new staple, they devised the theory that slavery, which 
they would not abolish, was not evil, but good. Tliey turned 
on the friends of colonization, and confidently demanded, 
'* Why take black men from a civilized and Christian country, 
where their labor is a source of immense gain, and a power to 
control the markets of the world, and send them to a land of 
ignorance, idolatry, and indolence, which was the home of 
their forefathers, but not theirs ? Slavery is a blessing. Were 
they not, in their ancestral land, naked, scarcely lifted above 
brutes, ignorant of the course of the sun, controlled by nature ? 
And in their new abode, have they not been taught to know 
the difference of the seasons, to plough, and plant, and reap, to 
drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their scanty dialect 
for the richest of all the languages among men, and the stupid 
adoration of follies for the purest religion ? And since slavery 
is good for the blacks, it is good for their masters, bringing 
opulence, and the opportunity of educating a race. The slavery 
of the black is good in itself; he shall serve the white man 
forever !" And nature, which better understood the quality 
of fleeting interest and passion, laughed as it caught the echo, 
" man," and " forever." 

SLAVERY AT HOME. 

A regular development of pretensions followed the new 
declaration, with logical consistency. Under the old declara- 
tion, every one of the States had retained, each for itself, the 
right of manumitting all slaves by an ordinary act of legisla- 
tion ; now, the power of the people over servitude, through 
their legislatures, was curtailed, and the privileged class was 
swift in imposing legal and constitvitional obstructions on the 
people themselves. The power of emancipation was narrowed 
or taken away. The slave might not be disquieted by educa- 
tion. There remained an unconfessed consciousness that the 
system of bondage was wrong, and a restless memory that it 
was at variance with the true American tradition ; its safety 
was therefore to be secured by political organization. The 
generation that made the Constitution, took care for the pre- 
dominance of freedom in Congress, by the ordinance of Jeffer- 
son. The new school aspired to secure for slavery an equality 
of votes in the Senate ; and while it hinted at an organic act 



808 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

that should concede to the collective South a veto power on 
national legislation, it assumed that each State separately had 
the right to revise and nullily laws of the United States, ac- 
cording to the discretion of its judgment. 

SLAVERY AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

The new theory hung as a bias on the foreign relations of 
the country. There could be no recognition of Hay ti, nor even 
of the American colony of Liberia; and the world was given 
to understand that the establishment of free labor in Cuba 
would be a reason for wresting tliat island from Spain. Terri- 
tories were annexed — Louisiana, Florida, Texas, half of Mexico. 
Slavery must have its share in them all, and it accepted for a 
time a dividing line between the unquestioned domain of free 
I'.ibor, and that in which involuntary labor was to be tolerated. 
A few years passed away, and the new school, strong and arro- 
gant, demanded and received an apology for applying the Jef 
ferson Proviso to Oregon. 

SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY. 

The application of that proviso was interrupted for three 
administrations; but justice moved steadily onward. In the 
news that the men of California had chosen freedom, Calhoun 
heard the knell of parting slavery ; and on his death-bed he 
counselled secession. Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison 
had died despairing of the abolition of slavery; Calhoim died 
in despair at the growth of freedom. His system ruslied irre- 
sistibly to its natural development. The death-struggle for 
California was followed by a short truce ; but the new school 
of politicians, who said that slavery was not evil, but good, 
soon sought to recover the ground they had lost, and confident 
of securing Texas, they demanded that the established line in 
the Territories between freedom and slavery should be blotted 
out. The country, believing in the strength, and enterprise, 
and expansive energy of freedom, made answer, though reluc- 
tantly : " Be it so — let there be no strife between brethren ; let 
freedom and slavery compete for the territories on equal terms, 
in a fair field, under an impartial administration." And on this 
theory, if on any, the contest might have been left to the de- 
cision of time. 

DRED SCOTT DECISION. 

The South started back in appalment from its victory, for 
it saw that a fair competition foreboded its defeat. I>ut where 
could it now find an ally to save it from its own mistake ? 
"What I have next to say is spoken with no emotion but regret. 
Our meeting to-day, is, as it were, at the grave, in the presence 
of Eternity, and the truth must be uttered in soberness and 
sincerity. In a great republic, as was observed more than two 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 309 

tliousand years a,c:o, any attempt to overturn the State owes 
its strong! h to aid from some branch of the government. Tlie 
Chiel' Justice of the United States, Avithovit any necessity or 
occasidu, vuluiiteered to come to the rescue of tlie tlieory of 
slavery And i'rom this court there lay no appeal, but to the 
bar of humanity and history. Against tlie Constitution, 
against the memory of the nation, against a previous decision, 
against a series of enactments, he decided that the slave is 
property — that slave property is entitled to no less protection 
than any other property — that the Constitution upholds it in 
every 'I'erritory, against any act of a local legislature, and even 
against Congress itself! Or, as the President tersely promul- 
gated tlie saying, " Kansas is as much a slave State as South 
Carolina or (Jeorgia ; slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, 
exists in every Territory." The municipal character of slavery 
being thus taken away, and slave property decreed to be 
" sacred," the authority of the courts was invoked to introduce 
it, by the comity of law, into States where slavery had been 
abolished; and in one of the courts of the United States, a 
Judge pronounced the African slave trade legitimate, and nu- 
merous and powerful advocates demanded its restoration. 

TANKY AND SLAVE RACES. 

Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate opinion, an- 
nounced what had never been heard from any magistrate of 
Greece or Rome — what was unknown to civil law, and canon 
law, and feudal law, and common law, and constitutional law ; un 
known to Jay, to Rut ledge, Ellsworth, and Marshall — that there 
are "slave races." The spirit of evil is intensely logical. Having 
the authority of this decision, five States swiftly followed the ear- 
lier example of a sixth, and opened the way for reducing the free 
negro to bondage ; the migrating free negro became a slave if 
he but touched the soil of a seventh ; and an eighth, from its 
extent, and soil, and mineral resources, destined to incalculable 
greatness, closed its eyes on its coming prosperity, and en- 
acted — as by Taney's decision it had the right to do — that 
every free black man who would live within its limits must ac- 
cept the condition of slavery for himself and his posterity. 

SECESSION RESOLVED OX. 

Only one step more remained to be taken. Jefferson and 
the leading statesmen of his day held fast to the idea that the 
enslavement of the African was, socially, morally, and po- 
litically, wrong. The new school was founded exactly upon the 
opposite idea; and they resolved flrst to distract the Democratic 
party, for which the Stipreme Court had now furnished the 
means, and then to establish a new government, with negro 
slavery for its corner-stone, as socially, morally, and politically 
right. 



310 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



THE ELECTION. 

As the Presidential election drew on, one of the old tra- 
ditional parties did not make its appearance. 'J'he oilier reeled 
as it sought to preserve its old position ; and the candidate who 
most nearly represented its best opinion, driven by patriotic 
zeal, roamed the country from end to end to speak for Union, 
eager at least to confront its enemies, yet not having hope that 
it would find deliverance through him. The storm rose to a 
whirlwind. Who would allay its wrath ? The most expe- 
rienced statesmen of the country had failed ; there was no 
hope from those who were great, after the flesh ; could relief 
come from one whose wisdom w^as like the wisdom of little 
children ? 

EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The choice of America fell on a man born west of the Allc- 
ghanies, in the cabin of poor people of Hardiu Coimty, Ky. — 
Abraham Lincoln. 

His mother could read, but not write ; his father could do 
neither ; but his parent sent him, with an old spelling book, to 
school, and he learned in his childhood to do both. 

When eight years old he floated down the Ohio with his 
father on a raft which bore the family and all their possessions 
to the shore of Indiana ; and, child as he was, he gave help as 
they toiled through dense forests to the interior of Spencer 
County. There in the land of free labor he grew up in a log 
cabin, with the solemn solitude for his teacher in his meditative 
hours. Of Asiatic literature he knew only the Bible ; of (jlreek, 
Latin, and medieval, no more than the translation of jEsop's 
Fables ; of English, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The 
traditions of George Fox and William Penn passed to him 
dimly along the lines of two centuries through his ancestors, 
who were Quakers. 

HIS EDUCATION. 

Otherwise his education was altogether American. The 
Declaration of Independence was his compendium of political 
wisdom, the life of Washington his constant study, and some- 
thing of JeS'erson and ISIadison reached him through Henry 
Clay, whom he honored from boyhood. For the rest, from day 
to day he Hved the life of the American people ; walked in its 
light; reasoned with its reason; thought w-ith its power (if 
thought; felt the beatings of its mighty lieart ; and so v.as in 
every way a child of nature — a chikl of the West — a child of 
America. 

HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE. 

At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition to get on in the 
world, he engaged himself to go down the Mississippi in a flat 
boat, receiving ten dollars a month for his wages, and after- 



ORATION BY HOX. GEORGE BANCROFT. 311 

ward he made the trip once more. At twenty-one he drove his 
father's cattle as the family migrated to Illinois, and split rails 
to fence in the new homestead in the wild. At twenty-three 
he was a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war. He 
kept a shop; he learned something- of surveying; but of Eng- 
lish literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shakspeare'a 
plays At twenty-five he was elected to the Legislature of 
Illinois, where he served eight years. At twenty-seven he was 
admitted to the bar. In 1837 he chose his home at Springfield, 
the beautiful centre of the richest land in the State. In 1847 
he was a member of the National Congress, where he voted 
about forty times in favor of the principle of the Jefferson Pro- 
viso. In 1854 he gave his influence to elect from Illinois to 
the American Senate a Democrat who would certainly do 
justice to Kansas. In 1858, as the rival of Douglas, he went 
before the people of the miglity Prairie State, saying : " This 
Union cannot permanently endure, half slave and half free ; the 
Union will not be dissolved, but the house will cease to be 
divided ;" and now, in 18C0, with no experience whatever as an 
executive ofiicer, while States were madly flying from their 
orbit, and wise men knew not where to find counsel, this de- 
scendant of Quakers, this pupil of Bunyan, this child of the 
great West was elected President of America. 

He measured the difficulty of the duty that devolved on him, 
and was resolved to fulfil it. 

HE GOES TO WASHINGTON. 

As on the 11th of February, 1861, he left Springfield, which 
for a quarter of a century had been his happy home ; to the 
crowd of his friends and neighbors whom he was never 
more to meet, he spoke a solemn farewell : " I know not how 
soon I shall sec you again. A duty has devolved upon mo 
greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since 
Washington. He never would have succeeded, except for the 
aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. 
On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray that 
I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot 
succeed, but with which success is certain." To the men of 
Indiana, he said : " I am but an accidental, temporary instru- 
ment ; it is your business to rise up and preserve the Union 
and hberty." At the capital of Ohio, he said : •' Without a 
name, without a reason why I should have a name, there has 
fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even upon the Father 
of his country." At varioiis places in New York, especially at 
Albany, before the Legislature, which tendered him the united 
support of the great Empire State, he said : '' While I hold 
myself the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been 
elevated to the Presidency, I have a more difficult task to per- 
form than any of them. I bring a tiaie heart to the work. I 



312 IN MEMOEIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

must roly upon the people of the whole country for support; 
ami witli their sustaining aid even I, huml»le as I am, cannot 
fail to carry the Ship of State safely through tlie storm." To 
the assembly of New Jersey at Trenton, he explained : " I shall 
take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the 
West, the South, and the whole country, in good temper, cer- 
tainly with no malice to any section. 1 am devoted to peace, 
but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly." In the 
old Independence Hall of Philadelphia, he said : "I have never 
had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence, which gave lib- 
erty not alone to the people of this country, but to the world 
in all future time. If the country cannot be saved without 
giving up that principle, I would rather be assassinated on the 
spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am 
willing to hve and die by." 

IN WHAT STATE HE FOUND THE COUNTRY. 

Travelling in the dead of night to escape assassination, Lin- 
coln arrived at Washington nine days before his inauguration. 
The outgoing President, at the opening of the session of Con- 
gress, had still kept as the majority of his advisers, men en- 
gaged in treason ; had declared that in case of even an " imagi- 
nary" apprehension of danger from notions of freedom among 
the slaves, " disunion would become inevitable." Lincoln and 
others had questioned the opinion of Taney ; such impugning 
he ascribed to the " factious temper of the times." Tlie 
favorite doctrine of the majority of the Democratic party on 
the power of a Territorial Legislature over Slavery he con- 
demned as an attack on " the sacred rights of property." Tlie 
State Legislatures, he insisted, must repeal what lie called 
" their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments," and which, 
if such, were "null and void," or "it would be impossible for 
any human power to save the Union." Nay ! if these unim- 
portant acts were not repealed, " the injured States would be 
justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the 
Union." lie maintained that no State might secede at its sov- 
ereign will and pleasure ; that the Union was meant for per- 
petuity, and that (Jongress might attempt to preserve, but only 
by conciliation ; that " the sword was not placed in their hands 
to preserve it by force ;" that " the last desperate remedy of a 
despairing people" would be " an explanatory amendment 
recogTiiziug the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States." The American Union he called " a confederacy" of 
States, and he thought it a duty to make the appeal for the 
amendment " before any of tliese States should separate them 
selves from the Union." 'i'he views of tlie Lieutcnant-General, 
containing some patriotic advice, " conceded the right of seces- 
fcion," pronounced a quadruple rupture of the Union " a smaller 



OKATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. SIS 

evil Ihan the reuniting of the frag-raents by the sword," and 
" eschewed the idea of invading a seceded State." After clianges 
in the Cabinet, the President informed Congress that "matters 
were still worse ;" that '• the South suffered serious grievances," 
which should be redressed " in peace." The day after this 
message the flag of the Union was fired upon from Fort Moul- 
trie, and the insult was not revenged or noticed. Senators in 
Congress telegraphed to their constituents to seize the national 
forts, and they were not arrested. 'J'he finances of the country 
were grievously embarrassed. Its little army was not within 
reach — the part of it in Texas, with all its stores, was made 
over by its commander to the seceding insurgents. One State 
after another voted in convention to go out of the Union. A 
Peace Congress, so-called, met at the request of Virginia, to 
concert the terms of a capitulation for the continuance of the 
Union. Congress in both branches sought to devise concilia- 
tory expedients ; the territories of the country were organized 
in a manner not to conflict with any pretensions of the South, 
or any decision of the Supreme Court ; and, nevertheless, the 
seceding States formed, at Montgomery, a Provisional (Jovern- 
ment, and pursued their relentless purposes witli such success 
that the Lieutenant-General feared the city of Washington 
niiglit find itself " included in a foreign country," and proposed, 
among tlie options for the consideration of Lincoln, to bid the 
seceded States "depart in peace." The great Republic seemed 
to have its emblem in the vast unfinished capitol, at that mo- 
ment surrounded by masses of stones and prostrate columns 
never yet lifted into their places ; seemingly the monument of 
high but delusive aspirations, the contused wreck of inchoate 
magnificence, sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or 
Athens. 

niS INAUGURATION. 

The fourth of March came. With instinctive wisdom, the 
new ['resident, speaking to the people on taking tlie oatli of 
office, put aside every question that divided the country, and 
gaineil a right to universal support, by planting himself on the 
single idea of Union. That Union he declared to be unbroken 
and perpetual; and he announced his determination to fulfil 
" the simple duly of taking care that the laws be faithfully ex- 
ecuted in all the States." Seven days later, the Convention 
of Confederate States imanimously adopted a constitution of 
their own; and the new Government was authoritatively 
announced to be founded on the idea that slavery is the natural 
and normal condition of the negro race. The issue was made 
up whether the great Republic was to maintain its providen- 
tial place in the history of mankind, or a rebellion founded on 
negro slavery gain a recognition of its principles throughout 
the civilized world. To the disalTecled, Lincoln had said: 



31-i I>f MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LTNCOLN. 

" You can liave no conflict without being yourselves the afrgres- 
sors." To fire the passions of the Southern portion of the 
people, the Confederate Government chose to become aggres- 
sors : and on the morning of the 121h of April began the bom- 
bardment of Fort Sumter, and compelled its evacuation. 

UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE. 

It is the glory of the late President that he had perfect faith 
in the peri)etuity of the Union. Supported, in advance, by 
Douglas, who spoke as with the voice of a million, he instantly 
called a meeting of Congress, and summoned the people to 
come and repossess the forts, places, and property which had 
l)cen seized from the Union. The men of the North were 
trained in schools ; industrious and frugal ; many of them deli- 
cately bred, their minds teeming with ideas, and fertile in plans 
of enterprise ; given to the culture of the arts ; eager in the pur- 
suit of wealth, yet employing wealth less for ostentation than 
for developing the resources of their country ; seeking happi- 
ness in the cahu of domestic Ufe ; and such lovers of peace that 
for generations they had been reputed unwarlike. Now, at tho 
cry of their country in its distress, they rose up with unap- 
peasable patriotism; not hirelings — the purest and of the best 
blood in the land ; sons of a pious ancestry, with a clear percep- 
tion of duty, unclouded faith, and fixed resolve to succeed, they 
thronged round the President to support the wronged, the 
beautiful flag of the nation. The halls of theological seminaries 
sent forth their young men, whose lips were touched with 
eloquence, whose hearts kindled with devotion to serve in the 
ranks, and make their way to command only as they learned 
the art of war. Striplings in the colleges, as well as the most 
gentle and the most studious ; those of sweetest temper and 
loveliest character and brightest genius passed from their 
classes to the camp. The lumberman sprang forward from the 
forest, the mechanics from their benches, where they had been 
trained by the exercise of political rights to share the life and 
hope of the Republic, to feel their responsibility to their fore- 
fathers, their posterity, and mankind, went forth resolved tliat 
their dignity as a constituent part of this Republic should not 
be impaired. Farmers and sons of farmers left the land but 
half ploughed, the grain but half planted, and, taking up the 
musket, learned to face without fear the presence of peril and 
the coming of death in the shocks of war, while their hearts 
were still attracted to the charms of their rural life, and all the 
tender affections of home. Whatever there was of truth and 
faith and public love in the common heart broke out with one 
expression. 'J'he mighty winds blew from every quarter to fun 
tlie flame of the sacred and unquenchable fire. 



ORATIOX BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 815 



THE WA.R A WORI,D-WIDR WAR. 

For a time the war was thonglit to be confined to our own 
domestic aifairs ; but it was soon seen that it involved the 
destinies of mankind, and its principles and causes shook the 
politics of Europe to the centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin 
divided the Governments of the world. 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

There was a kingdom whose people had in an eminent degree 
attained to freedom of industry and the security of person and 
property. Its middle class rose to greatness. Out of that 
class sprang the noblest poets and philosophers, whose words 
built up the intellect of its people : skilful navigators to find out 
the many paths of the oceans ; discoverers in natural science, 
whose inventions guided its industry to wealth, till it equaled 
any nation of the world in letters, and excelled all in trade and 
commerce. But its government was become a government of 
land, and not of men ; every blade of grass was represented, 
but only a small minority of the people. In the transition from 
the feudal forms the heads of the social organization freed them- 
selves from the military services which were the conditions of 
their tenure, and throwing the burden on the industrial classes, 
kept all the soil to themselves. Vast estates that had been 
managed by monasteries as endownnents for religion and charity 
were appropriated to swell the wealth of courtiers and favorites ; 
and the commons, where the poor man once had his right of 
pasture, were taken away, and, under forms of law, enclosed dis- 
tributively within their own domains. Although no law for- 
bade any inhabitant from purchasing land, the costliness of the 
transfer constituted a prohibition, so that it was the rule of that 
country that the plough should not be in the liands of its owner. 
The church was rested on a contradiction, claiming to be an 
embodiment of absolute truth, and yet was a creature of the 
statute book. 

HER SENTIMENTS. 

The progress of time increased the terrible contrast between 
wealth and poverty ; in their years of strength, the laboring 
people, cut off from all share in governing the State, derived 
a scanty support from the severest toil, and had no hope for old 
age but in puljlic charity or death. A grasping ambition had 
dotted the world with military posts, kept Avatch over our 
borders on the northeast, at the Bermudas, in the West Indies, 
held the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern and of the Indian 
Oceans, hovered on our northwest at Vancouver, held the 
whole of the newest continent, and the entrances to the old 
Mediterranean and Red Sea, and garrisoned forts all the way 
from Madras to China. That aristocracy had gazed with 
terror on the growth of a commonwealth where freeholds 



816 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

existed by the million, and religion was not in bondnge to llio 
.Slate; and now they could not repress their joy at its perils. 
'I'hey had not a word of sympathy for the kind-hearted poor 
man's son whom America had chosen for her chief ; they jeered 
at his large hands, and long feet, and migainly stature ; and 
the British Secretary of State for Foreign Afl'airs, made haste 
to send word through the palaces of Europe that the (irent 
Itepublic was in its agony, that the Republic was no more, that 
a headstone was all that remained due by the law of nations 
to '• the late Union." But it is written : " Let the dead bury 
their dead:" they may not bury the living. Let the dead bury 
their dead : let a bill of reform remove the worn-out Govern- 
ment of a class, and infuse new life into the British Constitu- 
tion by confiding rightful power to the people. 

HER POLICY. 

But while the vitality of America is indestructible, the 
British Uovernment hurried to do what never before had been 
done by Christian Powers — what was in direct conflict witli its 
own exposition of public law in the time of oiir struggle for in- 
dependence. Though the insurgent States had not a ship or 
an open harbor, it invested them with all the rigiits of a bel- 
ligerent, even on the ocean ; and this, too, when the rebellion 
was not only directed against the gentlest and most beneficent 
government on earth, without a shadow of justifiable cause, 
but when the rebellion was directed against human nature 
itself for the perpetual enslavement of a race. And the eflect 
of this recognition was that acts in themselves piratical found 
shelter in British courts of law. The resources of British cap- 
italists, their workshops, their armories, their private arsenals, 
their shipyards, were in league with the insurgents, and every 
British harbor in the wide world became a safe port for British 
ships, manned by British sailors, and armed with British guns, 
to prey on our peaceful commerce; even on our ships coming 
from British ports, freighted with British products, or that had 
carried gifts of grain to the English poor. The Prime Minister 
in the House of Commons, sustained by cheers, scoffed at the 
thought that their laws could be amended at our request, so as 
to preserve real neutrality; and to remonstrances, now owned 
to have been just, their Secretary answered that they could not 
change their laws ad infinitum. 

KKLATIONS WITU ENGLAND. 

The people of America then wished, as they always have 
wished, as they still wish, friendly relations with Kngland ; and no 
man in England or America can desire it more strongly than \. 
'I'liis country has ahv.ays yearned for good relations with I'liig- 
land. 'I'hrice only in all its history has that yearning been 
fairly met ; in the days of llainpden and Cromwell, again in the 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 317 

first ministry of the elder Pitt, and once again in the ministry 
of Shelbnrne. Not that there have not at all times been just 
men among the peers of Great Britain — Uke Halifax, in the 
days of James the II., or a Granville, an Argyle, or a Houghton 
in ours ; and we cannot be indifferent to a country that pro- 
duces statesmen like Cobden and Bright ; but the best bower 
anchor of peace was the working class of England, who suf- 
fered most from our civil war, but who, while they broke their 
diminished bread in sorrow, always encouraged us to persevere. 

FRANCE AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

The act of recognizing the rebel belligerents was concerted 
with France ; France, so beloved in America, on which she had 
conferred the greatest benefits that one people ever conferred 
on another; France, which stands foremost on the continent 
of Europe for the solidity of her culture, as well as for the 
bravery and generous impulses of lier sons ; France, which for 
centuries had been moving steadily in its own way toward in- 
tellectual and political freedom. The policy regarding further 
colonization of America by European Powers, known commonly 
as the doctrine of Monroe, had its origin in France ; and if it 
takes any man's name should bear the name of Turgot. It was 
adopted by Louis XVI., in the Cabinet of which Vergennes 
was the most important member. It is emphatically the policy 
of France; to which, with transient deviations, the Bourbons, 
the First Napoleon, the House of Orleans, have ever adhered. 

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON AND MEXICO. 

The late President was perpetually harassed by rumors that 
the Emperor Napoleon III. desired formally to recognize the 
States in rebellion as an independent power, and that England 
held him back by her reluctance, or France by her traditions 
of freedom, or he himself by his own better judgment and clear 
perception of events. But the Republic of Mexico, on our 
borders, was, like ourselves, distracted by a rebellion, and from 
a similar cause. 'J'he monarchy of England had fastened upon 
us slavery, which did not disappear with independence ; in like 
manner, the ecclesiastical policy established by the Spanish 
Council of the Indies, in the day of Charles V., and Philip II., 
retained its vigor in the Mexican Republic. The fifty years of 
civil war under which she had languished was due to the big- 
oted system which was the legacy of monarchy, just as here 
the inheritance of Slavery kept alive political strife, and culmi- 
nated in civil war. As with us there could be no quiet but 
through the end of slavery, so in Mexico there could be no 
prosperity until the crushing tyranny of intolerance should 
cease. The party of slavery "in the United States sent their 
emissaries to Europe to solicit aid ; and so did the party of the 
Church in Mexico, as organized by the old Spanish Council of 
20 



818 IN MEMORIAM— ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the Indies, but with a different result. Just as the Repubh'oan 
party had made an end of the rebellion, and was estal)lishing 
the best government ever known in that region, and jjiving 
promise to the nation of order, peace, and prosperity, word was 
brought us, in the moment of our deepest affiiction, that the 
French P^mperor, moved by a desire to erect in North America 
a buttress for hnperialism, would transform the Republic of 
Mexico into a secixndo-geniture for the House of llapsburg. 
America might complain ; she could not then interpose, and 
delay seemed justifiable. It was seen that Mexico could not, 
with all its wealtli of land, compete in cereal products with our 
Northwest, nor in tropical products with Cuba ; nor could it, 
under a disputed dynasty, attract capital, or create public 
works, or develop mines, or borrow money ; so that the impe- 
rial system of Mexico, which was forced at once to recognize 
the wisdom of the policy of the Republic by adopting it, could 
prove only an unremunerating drain on the French Treasury 
for the support of an Austrian adventurer. 

THE PERPETUITY OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 

Meantime, a new series of momentous questions grows up, 
and force themselves on the consideration of the thoughtful. 
Republicanism has learned hov/ to introduce into its constitu- 
tion every element of order, as well as every element of free- 
dom ; but thus far the continuity of its government has seemed 
to depend on the continuity of elections. It is now to be con- 
sidered how perpetuity is to be secured against foreign occupa- 
tion. The successor of Charles I. of England dated his reign 
from the death of his father; the Bourbons, coming back after 
a long series of revolutions, claimed that the Louis who became 
king was the eighteenth of that name. The present Emperor 
of the French, disdaining a title from election alone, is called 
the third of his name. Shall a Republic have less power of 
continuance when invading armies prevent a peaceful resort to 
the ballot-box ? What force shall it attach to intervening 
legislation ? AVhat validity to debts contracted for its over- 
throw ? 'J'hese momentous questions are, by the invasion of 
Mexico, thrown up for solution. A free State once constituted 
should be as undying as its people ; the Republic of Mexico 
must rise again. 

THE POPE OF ROME AND THE REBELLION. 

It was the condition of affairs in Mexico that involved the 
Pope of Rome in our difficulties so far that he alone among 
temporal sovereigns recognized the chief of the Confederate 
States as a President, and his supporters as a people ; and in 
letters to two great prelates of the Catholic Church in the 
United States, gave counsels for peace at a time when peace 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 819 

meant the victory of secession. Yet events move as they are 
ordered. The blessing of the Pope at Rome on the head of 
Duke Maximilian, could not revive in the ninoteentli century 
the ecclesiastical policy of the sixteenth ; and the result is only 
a new proof that there can be no prosperity in the state -with- 
out religious freedom. 

THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA. 

When it came home to the consciousness of the Americans 
that the war which they were waging was a war for the liberty 
of all the nations of the world — for freedom itself — they thanked 
Ood for the severity of the trial to which He put Iheir sin- 
cerity, and nerved themselves for their duty with an inexorable 
will. The President was led along by the greatness of their 
self-sacrificing example ; and as a child, in a dark night on a 
rugged way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guidance 
and support, he chmg fast to the hand of the people, and moved 
calmly through the gloom. While the statesmansliip of Eu- 
rope was scoffing at the hopeless vanity of their efforts, they 
put forth such miracles of energy as the history of the world 
had never known. The navy of the United States, drawing 
into the public service the willing militia of the seas, doiibled 
its tonnage in eight months, and established an actual blockade 
from Cape Ilatteras to the Eio Grande. In the course of the 
war it Vv^as increased fivefold in men and in tonnage, while the 
inventive genius of the country devised more efiTective kinds of 
ordnance, and new forms of naval architecture in wood and 
iron. There went into the field, for various terms of service, 
about two million men ; and in March last the men in service 
exceeded a million — that is to say, one of every two able-bodied 
men took some part in the war. And at one time every fourth 
able-bodied man was in the field. In one single month, one 
hundred and sixty-five thousand were recruited into service. 
Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized and placed in the field 
forty-two regiments of infantry — nearly thirty-six thousand 
men — and Ohio was like other States in the East and in the 
West. The well mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four thou- 
sand. Of horses, there were bought, first and last, two thirds 
of a million. In the movements of troops, science came in 
aid of patriotism ; so that, to choose a single instance out of 
many, an army twenty -three thousand strong, with its artillery, 
trains, baggage, and animals, were moved by rail from the Po- 
tomac to the Tennessee, twelve hundred miles, in seven days. 
In the long marches, wonders of military construction bridged 
the rivers ; and whenever an army halted, ample supplies 
awaited them at their ever-changing base. The vile thought 
that life is the greatest of blessings, did not rise up. In six 
hundred and twenty-five battles and severe skirmishes, blood 
flowed like water. It streamed over the grassy plains j it 



320 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

stained the rocks ; the undergrowth of the forests was red with 
it; and the arjnies marched on, with majestic conra'je, from 
one conflict to another, Ivnowing that they were lighting for 
God and liberty. The organization of the Medical Department 
met its infinitely multiplied duties with exactness and despatch. 
At the news of a battle, the best surgeons of our cities has- 
tened to the field, to offer the zealous aid of the greatest ex- 
f)erience and skill. The gentlest and most refined of women 
eft homes of luxury and ease, to build hospital tents near the 
armies, and serve as nurse to the sick and dying. Besides the 
large supply of religious teachers by the public, the congrega- 
tions spared to their brothers in the field the ablest ministers. 
The Christian Commission, which expended five and a half 
millions, sent four thousand clergymen, chosen out of the best, 
to keep unsoiled the religious character of the men, and made 
gifts of clothes, and food, and medicine. The organization of 
private charity assumed unheard of dimensions. The Sanitary 
Commission, which had seven thousand societies, distributed, 
imder the direction of an unpaid board, spontaneous contribu- 
tions to the amount of fifteen millions, in supplies or money — 
a million and a half in money from California alone — and dot- 
ted the scene of war from Paducah to Port Royal, from Belle 
Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes and lodges. 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

The coimtry had for its allies the river Mississippi, which 
would not be divided, and the range of mountains which car- 
ried the stronghold of the free through Western Virginia, and 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, to the highlands of Alabama. But 
it invoked the still higher power of immortal justice. In 
ancient Greece, where servitude was the universal custom, it 
was held that if a child were to strike its parent, the slave 
should defend the parent, and by that act recover his freedom. 
After vain resistance, Lincoln, who had tried to solve the ques- 
tion by gradual emancipation, by colonization, and by compen- 
sation, at last saw that slavery must be abolished, or the 
Republic must die ; and on the first day of January, 1863, ho 
wrote liberty on the banners of the armies. When this proc- 
lamation, which struck the fetters from three millions of slaves, 
reached Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of Milton and 
Wilberforce, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in the 
name of mankind, saying: "It is of a very strange nature;" 
" a measure of war of a very questionable kind ;" an act of 
" vengeance on the slave owner," that docs no more than " pro- 
fess to emancipate slaves, where the United States authorities 
cannot make emancipation a reality." Now there was no part 
of the country embraced in the proclamation where the United 
States could not and did not make emancipation a reality 
Those who saw Lincoln most frequently, liad never bel'oro 



ORATION BY IIOX. GEORGE BANCROFT. 321 

heard him speak with bitterness of any human being ; but he 
did not conceal how keenly he felt that he had been wronged 
by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in reply to another caviller — 
" The emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, Avere 
the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion. The job was a 
great national one ; and let none be slighted who bore an 
honorable part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and come 
to stay — then will there be some black men who can remcmljer 
that they have helped mankind to this great consummation." 

RUSSIA AND CHINA. 

The proclamation accomplished its end, for, during the war, 
our armies came into military possession of every State in 
rebellion. Then, too, was called forth the new power that 
comes from the simultaneous diffusion of thought and feeling 
among the nations of mankind. The mysterious sympathy of 
the millions throughout the world was given spontaneously. 
The best winters of Europe waked the conscience of the thought- 
ful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old "World was 
drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. 
Russia, whose Emperor had just accomplished one of the 
grandest acts in the coiu-se of time, by raising twenty millions 
of bondmen into freeholders, and thus assuring the growth and 
culture of a Russian people, remained our unwavering friend. 
From the oldest abode of civilization, which gave the first ex- 
ample of an imperial Government M'ith equality among the 
people. Prince Kung, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
remembered the saying of Confucius, that we should not do 
to others what we would not that others should do to us, and 
in the name of the Emperor of China closed its ports against 
the war ships and privateers of "the seditious." 

CONTINUANCE OF THE WAR. 

The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for 
anxious spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on Lincoln, and 
liis face was ploughed with the fur'rows of thought and sadness. 
"With malice toward none, free from the spirit of revenge, vic- 
tory made him importunate for peace ; and his enemies never 
doubted his word, or despaired of his abounding clemency, lie 
longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but not unless the 
freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand battles of 
Mill Spring, which gave us Nashville, of Fort Donelson, Malveiu 
Hill, Antietam, Gettysburg, the AVilderness of Virginia, Win- 
chester, Nashville, the capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, 
Mobile, Fort Fisher, the nuvrch from Atlanta, and the capture 
of Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the issue. Still more, 
the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the continent; of 
Maryland, whose sons never heard the midnight bells chime so 
sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by 



322 IN MEMORIAM— ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the voice of her own people, slie took licr place aiunng llie free; 
of Tennessee, which passed through fire and blood, through 
sorrows and the shadow of death, to work out her own deliver- 
ance, and by the faithfulness of her own sons to renew her 
youth like the eagle— proved that victory was deserved and 
would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy, uttered as 
they were by Lincoln on the waters of Virginia, were defiantly 
repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will, went 
as the arrow to its mark, and without a feeling of revenge struck 
a death-blow at rebellion. 

ijncoln's assassination. 

Where, In the history of nations, had a chief magistrate pos- 
sessed more sources of consolation and joy than Lincoln ? His 
countrymen had shown their love by choosing him to a second 
term of service. The raging war thatluid divided the country 
had failed, and private grief was Imshed by the grandeur of its 
results. 'J'he nation had its new birth of freedom, soon to be 
secured forever by an amendment of the Constitution. His 
persistent gentleness had concjuered for him a kindlier feeling 
on the part of the South. His scotfers among the grandees of 
]*'iur(>pe began to do him honor. The laboring classes every- 
where saw in his advancement their own. All people sent him 
their benedictions. And at the moment of the height of his 
fame, to which his humility and modesty added charms, he fell 
by the hand of the assassin ; and the only triumph awarded him 
was the march to the grave. 

THE GREATNESS OF MAN. 

This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and 
ashes, that we mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of 
shadows. How mean a thing were man, if there were not that 
within him which is higher than himself — if lie could not 
master the illusions of sense, and discern the connections of 
events by a superior light wliich comes from Cod. He so 
shares the divine impulses that he has power to subject inter- 
ested passions to love of country, and personal amliitioii to the 
ennoblement of man. Not in vain has Lincoln lived, for he has 
lielped to make this republic an exami)le of justice, witli no caste 
but tlie caste of humanity, 'i'he heroes who led our armies and 
ships into battle — Lyon, ISIcriierson, lleynulds, Sedgwick, 
Wadsworth, Foote, Ward, with their compeers— and fell in the 
service, did not die in vain; they and the myriads of nameless 
martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, died willingly "that govern- 
ment of tlie people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 323 



THE JUST DIED FOR THE UNJUST. 

The assassination of Lincoln, who was so free from malice, 
has by some mysterious influence struck the country with sol- 
emn awe, and hushed, instead of exciting, the passion for re- 
venge. It seems as if the just had died for the unjust. When 
I think of the friends I have lost in this war — and every one 
who hears me has, like myself, lost those whom he most loved 
— there is no consolation to be derived from victims on the 
scaffold, or from any thing but the established union of the re- 
generated nation. 

CHARACTER OF LINCOLN. 

In his character, Lincoln was through and through an 
American. He is the first native of the region west of the 
AUeghanies to attain to the highest station ; and how happy it 
is that the man who was brought forward as the natural out- 
growth and first fruits of that region should have been of un- 
blemished purity in private life, a good son, a kind husband, a 
most affectionate father, and, as a man, so gentle to all. As to 
integrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him, " Lincoln is the hon- 
estest man I ever knew." 

The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward 
thought, rather than of action. He excelled in logical state- 
ment more than in executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his 
reflective judgment was good, and his purposes were fixed ; but, 
hke the Hamlet of his only poet, his will was tardy in action ; 
and for this reason, and not from humility or tenderness of 
feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty which devolved 
on him had not fallen to the lot of another. He was skilful in 
analysis ; discerned with precision the central ideas on which a 
question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it 
by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would 
be intelligible to all. He delighted to express his opinions by 
apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by 
a story. 

Lincoln gained a name by discussing questions which, of all 
others, most easily lead to fanaticism ; but he was never carried 
away by enthusiastic zeal ; never indulged in extravagant lan- 
guage ; never hurried to support extreme measures ; never 
allowed himself to be controlled by sudden impulses. During 
the progress of the election at which he was chosen President, 
he expressed no opinion that went beyond the Jefferson proviso 
of 1784. Like .rctl'erson and Lafayette, he had faith in the in- 
tuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with rare sagac- 
ity. He knew how to bide his time, and was less apt to be in 
advance of public opinion than to lag behind. He never sought 
to electrify the public by taking an advanced position with a 
banner of opinion; but rather studied to move forward com- 



824 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

pactly, exposing no detachment in front or rear ; so that the 
course of his administration might have been explained as the 
calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful politician, had there 
not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle which from the 
first determined his purpose and grew more intense with every 
year, consuming his life by its energy, Yet his sensibilities 
■were not acute ; he had no vividness of imagination to picture 
to his mind the horrors of the battle field or the sufferings in 
hospitals ; his conscience was more tender than his feelings. 

Lincoln was one of the most unassuming of men. In time 
of success, he gave credit for it to those whom he employed, to 
the people, and to the providence of God. He did not know 
what ostentation is ; wlien he became President he was rather 
saddened than elated, and his conduct and manners sliowcd 
more than ever his belief that all men are born equal. He was 
no respecter of persons ; and neither rank, nor reputation, nor 
services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in 
discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but 
he readily deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the 
head of the armies he followed the manifest preference of Con- 
gress. 

A good President will secure unity to his administration by 
his own supervision of the various departments. Lincoln, who 
accepted advice readily, was never governed by any memlier 
of his Cabinet, and could not be moved from a purpose delib- 
erately formed ; but his supervision of affairs was unsteady and 
incomplete ; and sometimes, by a sudden inference transcending 
the usual forms, he rather confused than advanc.ed the public 
business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous regard due to the 
relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently without design 
that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be establislied. 
Truth he would receive from any one ; but when impressed by 
others, he did not use their opinions till by I'eflection he had 
made them thoroughly his own. 

It was the nature of Lincoln to forgive. When hostilities 
ceased, he who had always sent forth the flag with every one 
of its stars in the field, Avas eager to receive back his returning 
countrymen, and meditated " some new armouncement to the 
South." The Amendment to the Constitution abolisliing 
Slavery had his most earnest and unwearied support. During 
the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from his privately 
suggesting to Louisiana that " in defining the franchise some 
of the colored people might be let in," saying: "'i'hey would 
probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel 
of liberty in the family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed him- 
self "not in favor of" what he improperly called " negro citizen- 
ship ;" for the Constitution discriinniates between citizens and 
electors. Three days before his death he declared liis ])refer- 
ence that " the elective franchise were now conferred on the 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT, 325 

very intelligent of the colored men, and on those of them who 
served our cause as soldiers ;" but he wished it done by the 
States themselves, and he never harbored the thought of exact- 
ing it from a new government as a condition of its recognition. 
The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent by 
the Speaker of the House his friendly greetings to the men of 
the Rocky moimtains and the Pacific slope ; as he contem- 
plated the return of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruit- 
ful industry ; as he welcomed in advance hundreds of thousands 
of emigrants from Europe ; as his eye kindled with enthusiasm 
at the coming wealth of the nation. And so, with these 
thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and 
temptations of this life, and was at peace. 

PALMERSTON AND LINCOLN. 

Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave, 
when the Prime Minister of England died, full of years and 
honors. Palmerston traced his lineage to the time of the Con- 
queror ; Lincoln went back only to his grandfather. Palmerston 
received his education from the best scholars of Harrow, Edin- 
burgh, and Cambridge ; Lincoln's early teachers were the silent 
forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars. Palmerston wa? in 
public lif« for sixty years ; Lincoln but for a tenth of that timv., 
Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established aristocracy ; 
liincoln a leader, or rather a companion of the people. Palmer- 
ston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the 
House of Commons, that tlie hiterest of England was his shib- 
boleth ; Lincoln thouglit always of mankind as well as his own 
country, and served human nature itself. Palmerston from 
his narrowness as an Englishman, did not endear his country to 
any one court or any one people, but rather caused uneasiness 
and dislike ; Lincoln left America more beloved than ever by 
all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston was self-possessed and 
adroit in reconciling the conflicting claims of the factions of the 
aristocracy; Lincoln, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise 
himself on the conflicting opinions of the people. Palmerston 
was capable of insolence toward the weak, quick to the sense of 
honor, not heedful of right ; Lincoln rejected counsel given only 
as a matter of policy, and was not capable of being wilfully un- 
just. Palmerston, essentially superficial, delighted in banter, 
and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful levity; 
Lincoln was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest 
earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative 
of the aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribu- 
nal, not the conscience of humanity, but the House of Com- 
mons ; Lincoln took to heart the eternal truths of liberty, 
obeyed thenr as the commands of Providence, and accepted the 
human race as the judge of his fidelity. Palmerston did notliing 
that will endure ; his great achievement, the separation of Bel- 



326 IN MEMORIAM — ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ginm, placed that little kingdom -where it must gravitate to 
France ; Lincoln finished a work wliicli all time cannot over- 
throw. Palmerston is a shining example of the ablest of a cul- 
tivated aristocracy ; Lincoln shows the genuine fruits of institu- 
tions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the 
great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried 
in Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was 
followed by the British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a 
few years, will hardly be noticed by the side of the graves of 
Fox and Chatham; Lincoln was followed by the sorrow of his 
country across the continent, to his resting-place in the heart 
of the Mississippi Valley, to be remembered through all time 
oy his countrymen, and by all the people of the world. 

CONCLUSION. 

As the sum of all, the hand of Lincoln raised the flag ; the 
American people was the hero of the war; and therefore the re- 
Bult is a new era of republicanism. The disturbances in the 
country, grew not out of any thing republican, but out of 
Slavery, which is a part of the system of hereditary wrong ; and 
the expulsion of this domestic anomaly, opens to the renovated 
nation, a career of unthought of dignity and glory. Henceforth 
our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor. The 
party for Slavery, and the party against Slavery, are no more, 
and are merged in the party of union and freedom. The States 
which would have left us, are not brought back as conquered 
States, for then we should hold them only so long as that con- 
quest could be maintained; they come to their rightful place 
under the Constitution as original, necessary and inseparable 
members of the State. 

We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of 
victory. We respect the examples of the Romans, who never, 
even in concpiered lands, raised emblems of triumph. And our 
generals are not to be classed in the herd of vulgar conquerors, 
but are of the school of Timolecm, and William of Orange, and 
Washington. They have used the sword only to give peace to 
their country, and restore her to her place in the great assembly 
of nations. Our meeting closes in hope, now that a people be- 
gin to live according to the laws of reason, and republicanism 
is intrenched in a continent. 

RECEPTION OF THE O RATION. 

'I'he orator was frequently interrupted by applause, especially 
in those parts which he emphasized, and in which, ^\hile speak- 
ing of Creat Britain he said : "Let a bill of reform remove 
the worn-out Government of a class and infuse new life into 



ORATION BY HON. GEORGE BANCROFT. 827 

the British Constitution, by confiding rightful powers to the 
people ; and we cannot be indifTerent to a country that pro- 
duces statesmen like Cobden and Bright. But the best bower 
anchor of peace was the working class of England, who suffered 
most from the civil war, but who, while they broke their 
diminished bread in sorrow, always encouraged us to perse- 
vere." The orator's contrast of Palmerston with Lincoln — 
" the former, after a few years, hardly to be noticed by the 
side of the graves of Fox and Chatham ; but the latter to be 
remembered through all time by his countrymen and by all 
the people of the world," — was received with manifestations of 
delight, Sir Frederick Bruce being an attentive listener. But 
the apjilause was more extended and emphatic when Mr. Ban- 
croft exclaimed, " The Republic of Mexico must rise again !" 
Those parts of the address referring to the Emancipation Pro- 
clamation and the utterances of President Lincoln in that con- 
nection in favor of freedom, were received with earnest re- 
sponses by the vast assembly ; as was the clause referring to 
the unswerving friendship of Eussia and the act of China in 
closing her ports against the war ships and privateers of the 
seditious. Mr. Stoeckcl, the Russian Minister; was evidently 
pleased by the compliment to his own Government. The 
other foreign ministers preserved an appearance of stern grav- 
ity. The allusion to Mr. Lincoln's wish only three days be 
fore his death that " the elective franchise were conferred on 
the very intelligent of the colored men, and on those of them 
who served our cause as soldiers ; but that this should be done 
by the States themselves, and that he never harbored the 
thought of exacting it from a new government as a condition 
of its recognition," was greeted with applause; as was also the 
remark that in appointing the head of the armies he followed 
the manifest preference of Congress. Many eyes were at this 
point directed toward General Grant. 

On the conclusion of the oration, which occupied more than 
two hours and a half in the delivery, there was a spontaneous 
outburst of applause, clapping of hands, and the waving of 
hats and handkerchiefs. Every sentence of it seemed to find 
a prompt response on the part of the auditory. 

Mr. Bancroft was soon surrounded by a large number of dis- 



328 IX MEMORIAM — A.BRAHAM LINCOLN. 

tinguished personages, and received their congratulations. The 
ceremonies were closed by a brief prayer by the Rev. Dr. Gray, 
Chaplain of the Senate, who pronounced the benediction. 

The company withdrew, when the Speaker called the House 
to order. 

PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS. 

Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, offered a joint resolution, which 
was unanimously adopted, tendering the thanks of Congress to 
the Hon. George Bancroft, for the appropriate address de- 
livered by him on the life and services of Abraham Lincoln, 
and requesting him to furnish a copy of the same for publica- 
tion. 

The Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Memorial ex- 
ercises were directed to communicate to Mr. Bancroft the fore- 
going resolution and receive an answer thereto, and present the 
fiame to both branches of Congress. 

The House then adjourned. 

The Senate, after returning to their chamber, unanimously 
passed a resolution, on motion of Mr. Foot, that ten thousand 
copies of the memorial address on the life and character of 
Abraham Lincoln, delivered at the request of both houses of 
Congress to-day, by the Hon. George Bancroft, be printed for 
the use of the Senate. 

The Senate also unanimously passed the concurrent resolu- 
tion of the House with reference to the same subject. 

The Senate then adjourned. 



THE END. 



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CHARLES J. PETESSOlSr, 
No. 306 ChesLuut btveot, Philadelphia, Pft, 
0"Specii»'«n3 Bent, if written for. 



.., ^ CiUPfST BOOK Mm II THE ifORlD. 

To Sutlers! Pedlars! Booksellers! NewsAjicnts! etc. 




T. B. PETERSOfy 8l BROTHERS, 

No. 306 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 

PUBLISH THE iViOST SALEABLE BOOKS IN THE WORLD 

AND SUPPLY ALL BOOKS AT VERY LOW RATES. * 

The oieapest place in the world to Ituy or send for a stock of all 
kinds of Books, suitttble for all persons whatever, for Soldiers, and for 
tlie Army, and for all othor reading, is at the Bookselling and Pub- 
lishing House of T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, Philadelphia. 

Any person wanting any books at all, in any quantity, from a single 
book to a dozen, a linnored, thousand, ten thousand, or larger quantity 
of books, had better send on th*!^r orders at once to the "CHEAP- 
FST BOOKSELLTNa AND PUBLISHING HOUSE IN THE 
WOULD," which is at T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, No. 306 
chestnut Street, Philadelphia, who have the largest stock in the coau 
fry. and will supply them and eeli them cheaper ihan any other houses 
m the world. We publish a large variety of Military Novels, with 
Illustrated Military covsrs, in colors, besides thousands of others, all 
of which are the best selling and most popular books in the world. 
We have just issued a new aiid complete Catalogue, copies of which 
we will send gratuitously to all on their sending for one. 

Enclose one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, or a thousand 
dollars, or more, to us in a letter, or per express, and write what kind 
i)f books you wish, and they will be packed and sent to you at once, per 
first expiess or mail, or in any other way you may direct, just as well 
assorted, and the same as if you were on the spot, with circulars, show 
bills, <&c., gratis. All we ask is to give us a trial. 

Address all orders for any books you may want at all, no matter b' 
whom published, or how small or how large your order may bo, to the 
Cheapest PuUinhing and Bookselling Rouse in (he tvorld, ivhich i» ai 

T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, 

No. 306 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 
And ihoy will be packed and sent to yoa within an hour after receipil 
>f tho order, per express or railroad, or in any other way you may direct. 

^" Agents, Sutlers, and Pedlars wanted everywhere, to engage in the 
•ale of our popular selling Books, all of which will be sold at verj low ratea 



